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by FluttersIsAwesome

Rating: teen
Tags: Comedy, Adventure, Dark, Romance
Length: 27103

Gilda's life has been long and difficult. Recent events have finally gotten her fed up with the pain, and she decides to look for a place where she truly belongs.

Tough times and a hard life are what have defined Gilda for the past seventeen years. Even in summer flight camp, where she met her best friend, she had problems, and now she's absolutely tired of it. Our griffin is broken-hearted, she can no longer return to the village she grew up in, and she has never felt like she belonged in any place inhabited by ponies. That is, until she comes across an older city, and a colt that shows her exactly what it means to be home.
Story 4 of the Virtue series

Published 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC
Last updated 2013-09-20 17:21:10 UTC

Chapter 1: A New Start

Home

Story 4

Chapter 1: A New Start

By: SleeplessScribe

After a few days in the dweeb- I mean, Fluttershy’s care, my gashes and burns were completely healed up, and my bruises were all but gone. How I managed to even end up so injured in a place so close to Ponyville still eluded me, but I never thought I’d be so glad to have these ponies nearby. After I was fully coherent, they all gathered around to hear the story of what happened. Except for Nova, he wasn’t there for some reason.

I’m normally not afraid of anything, but giving details to the events that led to my story was the last thing I wanted to do. However, I made a promise to share my tale at a decent starting point as an attempt to not only show my thanks, but begin my apology. My last visit here ended in a fit of rage at both my best friend from flight camp and a crazy pony who was just trying to have fun, and while I didn’t feel that way back then, I knew I owed them an apology. Somehow, they managed to convince me to go around to most of the town and give my apologies to them, and for the most part, they we accepting. A few ponies slammed doors in my face, but I really didn’t care if they wanted to be too thickheaded to accept a sincere apology. It was the first time I had been out of that bed since I was freed, but I was immediately sent back to it and forbidden to leave after we had gone through the town.

Certain… events in my life gave me kind of a change of heart. While I still thought a lot of the ponies were lame dweebs, I at least learned to appreciate what they did for me. In time, their kindness finally got to me, and I learned to stop calling them dweebs and got to know their names. Then the day came where I had to tell them my story, and they all huddled around the bed I was in, which I later found out was Fluttershy’s and she had been sleeping on the couch for me.

None of them said a word, leaving me to start. “Alright, I’ve been thinking about it, and there are some things I just can’t tell you, but what I do tell ought to be good enough. Not too long ago, maybe a few weeks before I first ended up in this mess, my dad had been acting strangely. He was doing some digging around our village, and he came upon this weird crystal thing. About a day after he hung in up in our hut, he started changing. We first noticed that his body was darkening, and he was getting a lot bigger. Then he started getting more… abusive. I mean, he was always kind of hard on the daughters and our mom, but he was hitting my mother a whole lot more and roaring at my sisters and me for nothing.”

All jaws dropped when I mentioned the abuse, but I didn’t give them a chance to speak. “Then he started with these clouds. I would find him at our altar to Jäger making those things just by rubbing his claws together. After that, he finally decided to carry out my punishment, and before you ask, no I won’t tell you why I was getting punished. He decided to test his abilities with me, and trapped in that monster. That is, after he beat me within an inch of my life to make sure I wouldn’t resist. I’m sure Fluttershy noticed, but he broke both of my wings and my hind legs in addition to the obvious injuries.”

Given what I had learned about each of the ponies, I would have expected brainy little Twilight to be the one to ask, but it was actually the pole-up-her-butt Rarity that piped up. “Dear, if I may ask, why exactly did he trap you in it? I’m not asking what his reasoning is for using you, but why did he need to cage anyone?”

Twilight and I both spoke at the same time, leading me to believe that Rarity either wasn’t there or wasn’t paying attention. “Because that’s what held those monsters together.”

I gave the smart pony a nod and turned back to Miss Fru Fru. “I’m not sure if you’d call it a spell or a ritual, but whatever it was, it required a sacrifice. Those monsters slowly drained the life out of whatever was used as said sacrifice. That being said, I’m lucky to be alive right now.”

It was again time for the brainiac to start chattering. “Gilda, you said all this started happening when he found a crystal, right? Do you know if he still has it?”

The only way to know for sure would’ve been for them to actually go and see, but there was no way I was going to tell them that. “Probably not. My mother was suspicious of the thing ever since Krieger found it, so once all this was over with, I bet she destroyed it.”

Admitting it now wouldn’t be a problem, but at the time I would have never wanted anyone to hear me say that I thought that farmer pony was… just a little bit cooler than the rest. Regardless, my words did nothing to keep them here as Applesmack… or was it Applejack… as the earth pony with the cowboy hat spoke. “Well then, looks like we’ll have to see for ourselves then, won’t we?”

While they disregarded my warnings about returning, they did agree that only three of them would go. They decided on Twilight, Rarity, and Fluttershy, which were pretty good choices. Dash was way too aggressive and impatient, I didn’t know much about Applejack, and Pinkie Pie… most that know me know I just don’t like her.

I had that crystal destroyed the moment I was able to walk again. The embarrassment of falling under such a possession destroyed me, and my people now feared me more than I would have liked because of what I had done while I was not myself. Not only that, but my youngest daughter had escaped, and while I had no knowledge of her fate, something told me that she was still very much alive, and that needed correction.

After many weeks of recuperation, I finally regained my full range of motion, flying ability, and most importantly, my reflexes. While my knowledge of the land beyond this forest was limited, I did know that there was a small town that bordered the other side of these woods. Against the advice of my people, I chose to make the journey to said town.

Whether it was fortunate or unfortunate, I couldn’t say, but I did not even manage to step beyond the walls before I was met with three of the ponies that I owed my life and the lives of my people to. I stood before the two unicorns and one Pegasus, putting as much effort as I could into trying to look the least intimidating as I could. “Ponies, normally I tear the throats of those who enter my land without permission, but you have done my village a great service, and I owe you my gratitude. As chief of this settlement, I speak for all of us when I say ‘thank you for saving our lives’.”

My efforts seemed to have worked, at least to some extent. While the two unicorns seemed unfazed by me, the Pegasus that accompanied them had curled herself into a ball, cowering behind the purple pony. She must have been the leader, as she stepped up and spoke with great confidence without seeming aggressive at the same time. “Good day, chief. My name is Twilight Sparkle, and my friends and I are here to request entry into your home. Gilda has told us that the recent events started occurring after you retrieved some strange crystal, and we would like to see if you still have it.”

At the mention of my daughter, I found that it took even more effort to keep my voice at a reasonable tone. “I had that crystal destroyed, you need not worry. However, do know that you are harboring a criminal whom has been sentenced to death. My little ponies, while I may be a griffin bred for war, I am not unreasonable. I owe you all a tremendous debt, so I can only request that she is delivered to me.”

It was now the white one’s turn to speak. I must admit, though my opinion of these ponies, aside from the royalty of Canterlot, was very low to say the least, this particular pony was quite a sight. She even spoke with regal authority, and I found myself somewhat compelled to respect her. “I am sorry, chief, but we cannot do that. Gilda has done some horrible things in the time that we’ve known her, but handing her over to be killed is the next closest thing to murder, and we shall not be responsible for ending such a young life.”

Our argument continued for quite some time, and I found my patience wearing thin. Just as I began to feel that I could no longer resist slashing the both of them into ribbons, we all fell silent as a small peep interrupted us.

The little Pegasus spoke softly, stuttering as she did, but her words struck me like a sledgehammer. “Um, you can repay us by letting her go. You did say you owed us a debt.”

Many thoughts ran through my head and many memories came back to me. Memories of the pain and torment I had caused, and of how little I cared about how I treated my females in that time. Flashbacks of beatings and angry words, and all of this at once caused me to turn my back on the equines. “She will not be hunted. The girl may go wherever she wishes, but should she ever return to this village, ever return to this forest, she will be killed on sight. Tell her she has until tomorrow morning to leave. My people and I will be at the edge of the forest, looking for her. Should we spot her within the hour, she is ours.”

“He’s… letting me go?” I was almost speechless when Twilight gave me the news.

She gave me a nod, looking out the window that was right near the bed. “Your father said you were free to leave without being hunted. However, we have to get you out by tonight, because he will be waiting for you in the morning. That being said, do you think you’ll be able to fly any time soon?”

After rolling my eyes, I slowly pushed myself out of bed and spread my wings. It was kind of a small space, so I couldn’t open them completely, but it was still enough to get my point across. “I’m completely fine. When can I go?”

Before anyone could respond, I suddenly found myself with a bag at my side with a strap across my chest, and a pair of green eyes in my face. The shy pony motioned to the bag after I cocked a brow at her, picking it up to show me.

“I started thinking about it as soon as we were told you could leave. I figured it might take a while for you to find somewhere to live, so I packed a few days’ worth of food, some spending money in case you need to sleep at an inn, a compass, a canteen, and a very detailed map of Equestria that not only shows you all the major cities, but a bunch of smaller cities and towns as well.”

When she pulled out the map, Twilight looked at it for a moment before turning to her friend. “Fluttershy, that was in my library! When did you get that?”

Her face turned a light pink as she backed away a little. “I went to your library instead of back here. You didn’t seem to mind, so I thought it was alright.”

The purple hoof met its owner’s face and slid down slowly. “That’s because I didn’t even know you were gone. Well, it’s alright, I probably would have given it to our new friend anyway.”

I jumped slightly at her words, raising my brow again. “We’re friends now? Since when?”

Much to my dismay, it was Pinkie who responded as she nearly knocked the unicorn over by hopping on her. “We all decided to make you our friend after you carried out your apologies! That was real swell of you to do, and I must’ve taken a lot of pride swallowing to do that!”

If I had a bottom lip, I probably would have bitten it. Before I knew it, all the ponies were on me, their front legs around me as well as they could be in a massive hug. A part of me felt like pushing them all away, while the rest honestly felt like crying. I think the latter came out on top, but my eyes just started to water a little, and I managed to wipe them before anyone noticed. When I looked out of the window, I noticed the sun was starting to go down, so I nudged Dash a little so they could all get off of me.

I made my way down the stairs in silence, but the fact that none of the ponies were talking actually made things worse for me. Once I opened the door, I thought of taking off without a word, but I couldn’t help but turn around with misty eyes, just to say one thing, “Thank you all. For forgiving me, for befriending me… for saving my life.”

There was nothing I wanted less than to hear their responses and cry in front of them, so I flew off as fast as I could before the tears started falling, though I’m pretty sure they knew I was crying already. Once I was out of the town, I had to stop and rest on a cloud to calm myself down and dry my eyes. After I got it together, I took out the map and looked over it. A few of these places, such as Vanhoover and Las Pegasus, I had already been to a few years ago. It was a time in my life when I was trying to escape my past, which is also the whole reason I enrolled in Junior Speedsters, but no matter where I went, I was either treated like shit and shunned beyond belief, or I was denied entry altogether. One griffin could cover a lot of ground in a year, so I decided to pluck one of my feathers and poke it in the cloud.

Since the insides of clouds are normally saturated with water, the feather was soaked when I pulled it out, and I used it as a quill to mark off places I had already been in my year of traveling. After I was done, I found that quite a few areas between Canterlot and Equestria’s west coast were out of the running. Holy crap, I did a lot of traveling.

There was good news, and that very fact gave me a little hope. Most of the areas left were on the western side of this country, and the bulk of the griffin population actually lived on a continent that was west of Equestria, and so it was quite possible that trade between the two places gave the ponies of these cities a bit more tolerance for my species. In that year I had mentioned, I found that big cities really weren’t my thing, so I scanned the smaller locations. I found one in a location I really liked; there were two large areas labeled The Crystal Empire and the Crystal Mountains. Right in between all these things was Meadowbrook, and it looked perfect. It wasn’t that large, and the only thing between in and the empire itself were plains and a few high hills or low mountains, which probably meant it was a pretty wealthy city. Not that I was money hungry or anything, I just didn’t want to end up in a poor town where starting a new life would be more difficult than preening wings with a broken beak. That did mean it was more close to the center of Equestria as opposed to the east, but it was still eastern enough for me to consider it relevant.

The map was also misleading, Equestria was a lot smaller than it looked as well. The Crystal Empire was slightly northeast of Canterlot, which was northeast of Ponyville. It didn’t take me long to get to the massive city, and I immediately made my way further north, following a road that led right into the mountains. I did a fly-over to see what it looked like, and it wasn’t that different from Ponyville aside from its size, and the fact that it was surrounded by a stone wall. I also noticed that there were a lot of stone roads as opposed to dirt, but overall it still seemed like a very green, natural city. It was strange how… warm and green it was despite being so far up north, but the Crystal Empire was just as Springy.  The wall actually came out of the foot of the mountains and formed a hexagram around the city with two sides that met with a large gate, and quite a few buildings were actually build into the mountain. When I returned to the front, I saw that the gates to the city were closed, and I really didn’t want to go through the hassle of having someone open them for me.

Instead, I found a nice cloud to sleep on for the rest of the night, and in the morning I decided I would give this city a shot and see how I liked it. I found myself smiling as I drifted off to sleep, incredibly eager to start my new life.

Chapter 2: Cobalt's Story

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Story 4

Chapter 2: Cobalt’s Story

By: SleeplessScribe

When I awoke, I was surprised by how well I felt. Nothing felt sore, nothing stung, and nothing burned, and I was really expecting to experience some kind of aftereffects from my various injuries. Then again, it had been at least three weeks since the day of the monster incident. I couldn’t tell exactly what time it was, but it couldn’t have been after nine o’ clock, as the sun was still pretty low in the sky, and the fact that it was still in the east told me I hadn’t slept through the whole morning.

Fortunately for me, the gates into Meadowbrook were wide open, and I was strangely optimistic. I guess it was because of the sappy, yet touching goodbye I went through just before leaving Ponyville, but it felt good to be happy. Though I did have to remind myself not to get my hopes up just in case things went downhill. Two guards stood at the gate, one on each side. They were in some kind of box that was little more than three walls and a ceiling with a rectangular hole in the side that faced away from the city. There were two sentry towers on either side as well, but I couldn’t tell if they were currently occupied.

Both guards were pegasi clad in shiny bronze chest plates and helmets that I couldn’t name. Normally I was good with the names of armor and weapons, but these things were just weird. They were like orbs that someone had cut a section out of, they came a little low, being just above the eyes, and as that line came under the ears, the metal came back down beside their jaw. Basically they were spheres with one quarter of them cut out for the face. It was a little odd that there was nothing to protect their necks, though, and at the end of each leg was a bronze boot with a loop in the front ones, which I assumed were for holding weapons.

The one on the left made me feel freaking tiny; he was all muscle, and his dark red coat only made him look more intimidating, while his friend on the right was the exact opposite with her small frame and rather thin legs and torso. She was some kind of blue that I didn’t care to remember the specific name of, and too much of my attention was on the big guy to even get a good look.

I knew I wouldn’t be able to just walk in quietly, but I didn’t expect what I was met with. The big guy held a hoof out at my, his pearly whites a stark contrast to the dark fur. “I know you’re not about to walk in there without saying hello! Name’s Heavyweight, but everyone around here just calls me Ol’ Red. My friend over there is Twister, but she ain’t much of a talker. I’ve never seen your face before, so allow me to welcome you to Meadowbrook!”

After a quick shaking of his hoof, I gave him a nervous grin, not really sure how to respond. “Thanks for the welcome, name’s Gilda.”

Ol’ Red patted me on the shoulder, chuckling. “Nice to meet you, Gilda. Now, I need to give you this.” He handed me a rolled up map from a bin beside him that I hadn’t noticed. “That there’s a map of the city. What you’ll want to do is go to that center building there. However, I’d advise you to look for the guard captain first. He can show you around, and I know for sure he can ease that stress. I won’t ask what’s troubling you, but look for the pegasus in gold armor and a long ponytail, he’ll get your mind off of it faster than you can even say ‘hello’!”

His laughter was still pretty audible even after I was inside the city. Walking on stone used to be a bother for me, but after my first experience with it, I made an effort to try and get used to it just in case I ever had to in the future, and now Meadowbrook’s roads didn’t give me any trouble at all. The city was very beautiful; grass and trees thrived where stones didn’t lay out a path, and all the buildings, at least the ones that looked like houses, were made with a combination of very light and very dark woods, with the light making up all of the walls, and the dark making up the roofs and the trimmings. There were a few brick and stone buildings scattered about, but they all looked like business or services as opposed to dwellings.

Taking a peep at my map, I saw that the city was divided into four parts. Each part looked like a slice of pie that had the tip bitten off of it, and they formed a grey, sideways X on the map with a large circle in the center. The part of the city that was actually in the mountain wasn’t mapped, but I figured I’d find out what those building were eventually. As I made my way to the center down the main road, I stopped and put my map away, gazing at the gorgeous town square.

Market stalls of all kinds lined the edge of it, and the whole area was surrounded by flowerbeds. There were benches placed around the circle, and near almost every bench was a large tree. Finally, in the very center stood an amazing fountain that featured statues of, who I assumed to be, the two royal sisters of Equestria with water flowing out of their horns.

Well, this city had me hooked in the scenery department, that’s for sure. Another great thing was that, while there were some rather rude and nasty ones mixed in, most of the looks I got were warm and happy. I was met with many a “hello” and “good morning”, and none of the vendors at the stalls threw their merchandise at me and yelled at me to get lost.

Unfortunately, something much less positive caught my attention. There was a jewelry vendor near the left of the major road, and a unicorn sporting a hat that covered their horn made their way over to him. Now, had this unicorn not used magic to slip three necklaces into a small bag behind them, I would have never guess it even was a unicorn. That being said, had I been the same griffin I was a few months ago, I wouldn’t have cared, either. The thief then left and slowly trotted down the road.

If this city was going to be the start of my new life, I had to start with changing myself. Like I said, normally I would’ve just let the thief go about their business, but I was not the same Gilda that had been such a jerk to all the ponies in Ponyville. While I still had my doubts about this place, the least I could do was play my part in helping to keep the city clean.

As a creature that’s half eagle and half lion, I was gifted with incredible strength and amazing speed, but I was also a born predator that could sneak up on prey without making a sound. I followed the thief quickly, but tried not to sacrifice speed for silence as I closed the gap. However, before I could react, the unicorn turned around and took off the minute she saw me. That gave me two options for attracting attention, and instead of going with the more aggressive sounding one, I let loose with a shrill, bird-like screech that got everyone’s attention but frightened them a lot less than I think a loud roar would have.

The thief heard it too, picking up her pace as I took off after her. She was quick, but once I was off the ground some and my wings took over for my arms and legs, closing the gap was a piece of cake. I chased this mare down into an alley between two buildings with the only way out being to turn around and try to get by me. However, she was left with no chance as she was cut off.

The pegasus’ semi-deep voice echoed through the alley despite his rather low tone. “Stop right there, criminal scum! Nopony breaks the law on my watch!” Before the unicorn even had time to stop, his forelegs were around her, and a few moments later she was on the ground in cuffs. You know, since ponies just have hooves, couldn’t they just slip out of those circular cuffs?

Raising his hoof to his mouth, he let out a whistle. Apparently he had a friend not too far behind, as another guard flew over and took the thief from him. With that taken care of, I was able to get a good look at him. His coat was a light brown, kind of like my lion fur, but less brownish grey and more pure brown, his mane and tail were a sandy blonde, and the long mane was tied into a pony tail. He sported gold armor with what looked like a silver claw on the breastplate as well as a broken X near the top; broken as in one piece of the X was separated from the rest. Oddly enough, he wasn’t wearing a helmet, and a blue shield with a crescent moon surround by rays of the sun on his flank.

He got up in my face, his lips pursed and glaring. I opened my mouth to speak, but his words silenced me again. “You have beautiful eyes.” With that, I’m pretty sure my face became as red as his eyes. I was given quite the good look at them since they were right in front of mine, and they kind of looked like Dash’s in terms of color.

“E-Excuse me?”

He drew back, a loud laugh now echoing through the alley as he held out his hoof. “Thank you so much for the help, ma’am. Name’s Cobalt Edge, and as the captain of the Meadowbrook Guard, I’d like to welcome you to our fair city! Kinda sucks that the first thing you witnessed was an attempted robbery, but hey, at least I got to use my ‘Stop right there, criminal scum!’ line! That always makes things better.”

Well, Ol’ Red was right; my mind certainly wasn’t on my troubles as soon as I met him. Seriously though, this guy was the guard captain? He was a complete dork, and didn’t look but maybe a year older than me! However, I still found myself slightly intimidated when he stopped laughing and stared at me with a straight face. “You. Name. Now. Be happy about it, too.”

I looked from side to side for a moment before finally looking at him, swallowing a lump in my throat. “Um… hi, I’m Gilda.” I’ll admit, it was kind of embarrassing for such a pony to be making me feel this way, it was most definitely not at all like me.

He straightened himself up, puffing out his chest a little bit as he cleared his throat. “I thought I said be happy about it. Let’s try this again: I’m Cobalt Edge, and it’s very nice to meet you, Miss…?”

Alright, I could tell he was serious, but it still didn’t make me take him any more seriously. “Hi, I’m Gilda, and it’s very nice to meet you, Cobalt.”

The corners of his mouth turned up into a smile as he clapped his front hooves together. “Atta girl, Gilda! That was much better! You go, girl!” After seeing my roll my eyes, the hooves stopped clapping and pointed straight at me. “Hey now, none of that, you got me? I’m standing here trying to get you to cheer up, and all you’re doing is blowing me off.”

There was a long silence as both of our faces turned bright pink. Cobalt let out a nervous chuckle, rubbing the back of his head. “Um… I think I’m going to avoid using that phrase from now on. Anyway, the point is that I’m trying to cheer you up. It’s pretty clear to me that you’ve got quite a few problems you’re trying to get over. So, here’s my proposal: You talk to me about your issues, and I give you a tour of the city. Sound good?”

I stared at the hoof I was presented with, raising my brow at the colt. “I don’t need a shrink, nor do I want one.”

I set my hand on his hoof to push it down, but he used it to pull me close to him. His tone somewhat frightened me; the stark contrast to the silly, whimsical tone and mannerisms made me feel like I wasn’t even talking to the same pony. “Look, Gilda. I can read you like those maps in your bag, you show quite a few signs of personal trouble. As guard captain, I make it my personal duty to ensure the happiness of the citizens of this city, and even though you don’t have papers yet, you’re still included in that group. You need to do a few things that I’d be a great help with, anyway, so you might as well let me show you around. If it’s a matter of trust, then give me some time to earn it.”

Jerking my hand away from him, I turned away. Scoffing at him was the most I wanted to do, seeing as how he was still being nice. “You do realized that you just asked to try and earn a griffin’s trust, right?”

My jaw dropped at the next thing that came out of his mouth, and even though I wanted to turn back and look at him, I couldn’t. “ Lassen Sie mich nicht? You think I just learned your language out of nowhere, Gilda? Look, I’m not asking you to tell me everything about you so I can learn your weakness and lead you into a death trap. I want to help, and not because it’s my job. I want to help because that’s just who I am, and that’s why I do my best to keep from being as serious as I am right now.”

After a long sigh, I turned to him with my head lowered. “Fine. I just hope nobody gets the wrong idea.”

His laughter made me wonder if he knew I was serious. I mean, didn’t you pretty much have to be married to be in such a position? He put one foreleg around my shoulders, looking at me with one open eye. “Gilda, you’re not bad, you’re already cracking jokes! Nopony’s going to care, silly! Heck, I’m not even dating anyone.”

I followed him out of the alley, and he finally calmed down to the point where he stopped laughing. My thoughts on him were torn between thinking he was awesome in a… fun way, and thinking he was just a goofball that nobody took seriously. “Wouldn’t that be more of a reason for other’s to get the wrong impression?”

The pony raised his hoof to his chin, tapping it a few times as he looked up. “Some might, but the question is: do I care? Certainly not. Gilda, as I said before, I can read you like those maps in your bag, and I feel it best for you to receive the best welcome this city can offer, the most detailed tour you can get, and the quickest citizenship that the city can allow. That being said, shall I begin showing you around?”

It was all I could do to keep from rolling my eyes. “Sure, but you’d better be ready to answer some of my own questions.” After a nod from him, we returned to what he referred to as the “market square”. “First off, I need to know: how did someone as goofy as you get to be in the position you’re in?”

His mouth began to straighten out as he took my hand again, leading me to one of the benches beneath a tree. “It’s going to take too much breath for me to tell that story and walk at the same time. Are you ready for a long tale?” Now it was my turn to nod, and he cleared his throat when he saw. “Alright, let’s go back to the founding of this city.”

He looked to the fountain, clearing his throat one more time. “Meadowbrook was one of the first small cities to be established in Canterlot. It’s older than my great uncle Swift, and he’s old. Now, how it happened might make you cringe a bit, but you deserve to know everything. A large tribe of griffins used to own the Crystal Mountains. Meadowbrook used to be a pegasus only city, and through trade and their sharing of the sky, they managed to maintain peace with this tribe. It was only after earth ponies and unicorns began to make their homes hear that unrest began to stir, and it was actually a unicorn that started a great war. The pegasi refused to take part in it, but the war awoke some… strange creatures. Ever since the war began, attacks from monsters beyond the borders of Equestria became a regular, and the very first stallion in my family, Halberd Edge, took it upon himself to establish a city guard to defend the ponies from these beasts.”

I took advantage of his brief pause. “Do you mean like chimeras and manticores and the like?”

Cobalt slowly shook his head. “I’m not sure you’ve heard of them, but I mean things like wolvers, Hell Hounds, gremlins, and things almost nopony in Equestria has heard of. This was also long before the Mostro Knights were established, and even to this day, we’re too far from Canterlot to receive help from them. Eventually, the fighting awoke Vahlok, a great dragon that slumbers in a cave above the city. The ancient beast witness the bloodshed for mere moments before descending on the snowy land and bringing both sides to an agreement. The griffins that once inhabited the mountains were led by Vahlok to a much more suitable land to the east of Equestria, where food, water, and favorable climates were much more abundant. He also took pity on Meadowbrook, and, with a caring heart, took it upon himself to become the guardian of our city, and he still is today. You may have noticed that, despite being so far up north, the city seems very warm and green, and that’s all Vahlok’s doing.”

Tilting my head a little, I looked up at the mountain the city was built into. “That still doesn’t explain how you got where you are.”

He raised his brows, looking as if he had forgotten that. “Oh, right. Vahlok himself named Halberd as the head guard of Meadowbrook, and from there, Halberd established an official law enforcement and protection organization. Ever since, the Edge family has been the head of Meadowbrook’s guard. I call nepotism on it, honestly, but I can’t argue. Protecting others is not only my duty, but my destiny.”

The captain turned a little, giving me a better look at the shield on his flank. “You want this story too?” I was a little curious, so I gave him another nod and he cleared his throat yet again. “I was a bit of a late bloomer, as I was about fifteen when I got it. My father, Scimitar, had three kids, and I was the youngest, and the only boy. He finally decided to break the trend of naming sons after weapons when he gave us all names that were shades of blue starting with ‘C’. There was the oldest sister, Cyan, the middle sister, Cerulean, and then me, Cobalt. Anyway, Scimitar always pushed me to be different, and I always wanted to be different, hence the long hair and my less-than-serious attitude. Well, four years ago, my dad was responding to another monster attack, and against his orders, I followed him. The monster we found was freakish; it was a huge centaur swinging around a scythe like he was death himself, and the only thing currently standing between him and the citizens was my father. It was a long and drawn out fight, and it seemed like every strike Scimitar landed only managed to make the thing more pissed off. By the time I had gotten there, my dad was worn out and barely able to hold his own. With my father on the ground trying to regain his breath, and the large scythe ready to swing down on him, there was only one thing I could think to do.”

My eyes widened when he lifted his wing so he could remove part of his armor. Across his chest was a scar stretching just barely past where the “collar” of his breastplate began to the center of his chest. I gazed at it for just a moment before the armor was returned to its regular place. “I probably would have died had it not been for a griffin who just happened to be in the right place at the right time. As the blade came down, he grabbed hold of me and pulled me back just enough to keep the scythe from slicing me in two. Luckily, the time that we bought was enough for my father to continue the fight, and after the griffin had gotten me to safety and performed first aid to the best of his abilities, he rushed to help my dad.”

Cobalt turned away from me, staring at the sky. Grabbing him by the shoulder, I began to shake him slowly. “So by protecting your dad, you got your mark?”

He nodded slowly, not turning back to me. “I learned that I was destined to be a protector. Not only of Meadowbrook, but I devoted myself to protecting those in need no matter where I went, regardless of race, gender,” it was as he said these last words that he faced me again, “or species.” There was a decent pause between that and his next line, and his gaze returned to the fountain. “As time went on, the combined forces of my dad and the griffin still proved insufficient, and finally Vahlok stepped in. With my family being so closely connected to him, we knew that, while he protected our city, he only interfered when he deemed necessary. Unfortunately, while he was able to rid Meadowbrook of the centaur, he wasn’t fast enough to end my father’s career. The beast took something from him that, regardless of my age, immediately pushed me into his position and forced me to take on the responsibility of leading an entire guard army.”

After seeing the look in my eyes, his focused remained on me. However, he closed his eyes as he spoke. “His wings. The centaur hand him on the ground and smashed the bones, splitting the muscle and forcing him to have the majority of both wings removed. Ever since then, he attempted to prepare me in every way possible for the role I would have to assume. I already knew how to fight, so his focus was on diplomacy. I learned how to read expressions and body language, which is how I figured that you were going through quite a bit of your own problems. He taught me when it was appropriate to raise your voice in meetings, and how to go about doing so. I learned all about the physical signs of a liar, and things of that nature. I hope I’ve said enough to at least convince you that giving me a chance at trust wouldn’t hurt.”

I tried to keep my cool as I leaned back, scratching my head in an attempt to seem like I had something better to focus on. “Quite a story you got there. I’m not one for history lessons, but I guess it was kind of necessary. Sure, if you’re willing to tell me all of this without even knowing a thing about me, I guess I could chance it.”

The captain gave me a nod, the smile slowly returning. “Gilda, being happy works for me. My seemingly carefree and upbeat nature does not interfere with my work. If anything, it makes others like me more, and it really helps get me through the stress of being Captain of the Meadowbrook Guard and nineteen years old.” He held his hoof out to me again, a less goofy, and more… relieved smile on his face. “Hello there, ma’am. My name’s Cobalt Edge, and I’d like to give you a tour of this fair city, if I may.”

After a moment of staring at the hoof, I looked at him and took it in my hand. “You may.”

Chapter 3: The Tour

Home

Story 4

Chapter 3: The Tour

By: SleeplessScribe

Cobalt stepped down from the bench, not allowing me to release his hoof until I was down as well. As I’m sure you’ve guessed, there are some parts of the city not on your map, but we’ll be going there last, as we need to visit there anyway to get you settled in.”

I was led down the road I had initially come up, and as we approached the gates, the desire to speak overwhelmed me. “Cobalt? Um, thanks. It must’ve taken a lot for you to just pour out everything like that. You chose not to leave anything out, and I appreciate it.” Apologies and displays of appreciation were never my strong suit, but the colt seemed perfectly fine with my less than stellar thank you.

After a soft chuckle, he turned around and was smiling at me again. “Friends don’t keep things from each other, Gilda. If I want you to trust me enough to let me help you, I need to tell you everything you deserve to know.”

This guy was seriously messing with my head. The way he was acting now was still very nice and friendly, but it completely clashed with my first impression of him, and I found myself already starting to change my attitude about him. I wanted respond, but he didn’t give me a chance as he picked up my map from out of my bag. “I hate to sound so rushed, but I’d like to get all the formalities out of the way before we get into another deep talk. No offense, but I do still have a job to do as well.”

I have him a nod, not very appreciative of him just taking things out of my bag but knowing my place well enough not to say anything about it. “I understand.”

Cobalt opened the map for me and immediately began giving me the basics. Meadowbrook was divided into two halves, with the bottom half being the one on the map. It was divided into four districts, and the main roads that met in the center are what divided them. The one in the lower left was the Residential District, the lower right was the Crafting District, the upper right was the Market District, and the upper left was the Arts and Recreation District. We avoided the topics that we had been discussing earlier and instead focused on the city tour.

The captain began by leading me along the streets that made up the Residential District. These were the houses with well-kept lawns and the two-tone wood I had seen when I first came in. As we walked through, Cobalt put his hoof on my shoulder, keeping his eyes forward. “Now Gilda, I’m going to be honest with you. This is one area of the city you might want to avoid for a while. There are a few pegasi that have chosen to make their homes here, but most of them live in the houses up on the mountain itself. That being said, a lot of earth ponies and unicorns still aren’t too tolerant of griffins, so just expect some dirty looks if you ever have to come through here.”

Rolling my eyes, I shrugged his hoof off of me. “I’m used to it. As long as I’m not forced to live around here, where it’s likely everyone will make my life hell, I’ll be fine.”

He nodded, bringing me back to one of the main roads once we were through. I was impressed; there were maybe fifty or sixty houses, but considering the size of the city, that was actually quite a lot. “I’ll do what I can to help you get a place up there. Trust me, I sometimes wonder how tolerant these ponies are of pegasi.”

It was now time for him to take me through the crafting district. The air was filled with the scent of coal and oil, and the sounds of various hammering and sawing echoed through the area. Cobalt pointed out a few specific places, but for the most part it was a quick trip. This seemed to be the smallest district seeing as how it was just a few spread out shops. What I saw was mostly blacksmiths, woodworkers, and potters with a few cloth spinners here and there.

However, my guide did pull me over to one certain smithy. Behind the counter, I could see his rather large forge, and he had another room behind it that was probably for storage. After a whistle from Cobalt, a large, sandy-coated stallion walked out. His mane was short and stone grey, and he looked like he had just come out of a sauna.

Honestly, he sounded aged. His voice had a light rasp to it, but it was deeper than what I thought would be typical for a pony the same age that his appearance made me think he was. “Good day, Cobalt. Who’s your friend?”

Despite being an earth pony, I was met with a small smile when he looked at me. Cobalt put his foreleg around my shoulders, his eyes still on the smith. “Bellows, this is Gilda. She just arrived here a few hours ago, and I felt it’d be a good idea for her to meet the best blacksmith in all of Equestria.”

I did my best to put on a polite smile, holding my hand out. The fact that I would have to start changing my own attitude was something I had already accepted, but that didn’t make doing things I wasn’t used to any easier. “Hey. Nice to meet you.”

It took a moment, but he finally took my hand and gave it a light shake. “Pleasure to meet you. Don’t let Cobalt fool you, I’m nothing special, I just put a lot of care into my work. Speaking of, I hope you don’t mind if I get back to it.” Bellows didn’t even wait for an answer before doing so, returning to that room in the back.

My friend nudged me and continued onward, crossing into the Market District. “He’s not much of a talker, don’t let that get to you. You ought to get a medal just for making him smile.”

I gave a low, single chuckle as we made our way through. This district seemed to be the busiest, what with all the different stores. There were department stores, big grocery markets, hobby shops, and even a florist. One had to admit, this place was pretty organized. There weren’t many places that Cobalt actually pointed out here, but he made his excitement quite obvious as we made our way to the Arts and Entertainment district.

Not long after we passed by the fountain again, my jaw dropped and my eyes widened. There were restaurants, playhouses, art galleries, various music schools, and even an opera house. Everywhere you looked there was either a huge canvas painting or a well-crafted statue, and everybody there, including the many unicorns, gave me kind hellos and warm smiles.

Seeing all this, my guide gave me a grin. “This is probably the most crowded district late in the evening. It’s also by far the friendliest district, and Gilda, I don’t care what you think of me or what you think of the city right now, you have to let me take you to one of the many plays put on here before you leave and or die.”

Feathers were even worse than fur when it came to hiding changes in skin color, especially white ones like mine. I know he didn’t mean it that way but I still had to ask just to help myself calm down. “You didn’t just ask me out on a date, right?”

He let out a quick laugh, brushing my face with his tail briefly. “I don’t know, maybe.” The colt walked off before I even got a chance to respond, leaving me slightly flustered as I caught up to him.

“That’s not funny.”

His grin was way too smug for my liking. “Why, do you not want that to be a joke?” Cobalt laughed again, closing one eye as he looked at me. “Come on, we need to take care of the papers now.”

* * *

The area we came to by following the north road brought us to what Cobalt called the Federal District. You came to a set of gates that were basically a smaller version of the city entrance, and once you came in you were greeted by a large brick square. The thing sported a big double door with four windows on each side and an arch over the door.

My friend looked at me before looking to the building. “This is the city hall. Inside is Meadowbrook’s courtroom, the mayor’s office, and the council meeting room. I won’t bore you with details, but I know you’re more than smart enough to know this place is important.”

If it weren’t for his tone, I would have sworn he was just being sarcastic. He was right though, I didn’t care at all for the politics of Meadowbrook. My goal was to find a house, find some kind of job, and get a new life away from my past. The road was a curved fork with two ways to take, and Cobalt first took me to the left of the city hall. After a little bit of walking, we were greeted by a massive stone fortress. Just from the front, it looked to be composed of three parts: a medium-sized tower with two city hall-sized sections on either side. In the circular courtyard, a red flag bearing the same symbol that was on Cobalt’s armor was raised high on a flagpole.

“This here is the guard headquarters. It’s got an indoor and outdoor training grounds, two armories, living quarters, several offices for… officers, and a prison. If you’d like, I can show you around once you’re all situated?”

I gave him a shrug, not really caring one way or the other. “Not like I have anything better to do yet.”

Before I knew it, both his forelegs were around me, and while I was tempted to just push him away, I couldn’t. Hugs normally weren’t my thing, but it just didn’t feel right not to let him do it. “What exactly was that for?”

He simply shrugged, backtracking along the road. “I felt like it. That’s what friends do, and I’m not going to give up on forging a friendship with you.”

That was the last thing I wanted to think about right now. Cobalt had thrown my mind in all kinds of directions, but all of them were oddly positive. In the short time we had been together, he’d almost gotten me to laugh, gave me a deep admiration for him that I would never let him find out about, and earned my respect with a simple history lesson. I still had my doubts about putting trust in him, but contemplating a friendship was something I didn’t want to do until I at least knew where I was going to be laying my head.

“So, where’s the next stop?”

“I call it the Paper Palace. It’s the last of the major buildings actually on the ground, and it’s there that we have the post office. It’s divided into a few separate stations, and one of them is the citizenship office. We’ll get you applied for official citizenship, and they can see if there are any houses you can pick up.”

There wasn’t really anything I could say in response. He had answered my question completely without leaving any more questions. The building I was taken to was a whole lot less impressive than the previous two, but it was still pretty decent in size. I wasn’t left with much time to look around as Cobalt led me down a hallway lined with doors. When we finally stopped, he knocked on the door directly in front of us, and a sweet, feminine voice responded. “Come in.”

Cobalt made a move for the doorknob, but I took it instead just for fun, opening it myself. The room itself wasn’t much; a simple desk with two chairs in front of it and a bunch of filing cabinets behind it was all there was. Sitting behind the desk was a light brown mare similar in color to my friend, though her mane was a much lighter blonde, almost to the point where it was white. Cobalt himself raised a brow at her, standing in the door after I had gone through. “Well, isn’t this something? I had intended to introduce you to my sisters after we got through all of this, but it looks like I can do that now. Gilda, meet my oldest sister Cyan. She’s the manager of this place, so I have no idea what she’s doing here.”

Cyan gave us both a sweet smile, motioning with her hoof for the both of us to sit. “Standing in for a sick employee. Poor thing’s come down with quite the fever.” The pegasus looked at me for a long moment before turning to her brother. “I didn’t know you had a girlfriend, Cobalt. And a griffin, no less, you dog!”

Great, a pony with an even more flustering sense of humor than Cobalt. I guess jokes like that just ran in the family. After clearing his throat and getting the blush off of his face, my friend turned to me. “Cyan, this is my friend Gilda. We kind of met when she trapped a thief for me, and this was one of the last stops on our tour of the city. I was hoping to get her settled in, and unless a new law was instated without me know, my seal of approval is still instant citizenship, correct?”

“Indeed it is.” Cyan giggled a little at seeing my confused expression, opening a drawer and pulling out a few papers. “Being the captain of the guard, Cobalt can stamp citizenship papers with a special seal. His approval grants the applicant instant citizenship once it reaches the council, which is normally in a few hours.”

Cobalt himself grinned, closing one of his eyes again. “It’s not a power I use very often. In fact, I think this is the first time I myself have used it.”

I raised my brow as Cyan handed me the papers and a quill that had already been dipped in ink. “Why would you do that just for me?”

All he did was shrug, his eyes still closed as he watched me. “I’ll tell you later, alright? I promise I will.”

With a scoff, I turned my attention to the papers. “Whatever.” It was all basic stuff like my name, birthday, height, weight, stuff like that. Once I was done, I handed them back to Cyan, and her brother pressed a stamp onto it, revealing a red symbol that was basically a mirror of the broken X on his armor.

The mare took them and set them aside, shifting her gaze between the two of us. “Now… I’m afraid the matter of a house is not going to be so easy. Knowing Cobalt, he doesn’t want you having a home in the regular district, but unfortunately that’s the only area where there are vacancies. Construction on more houses both there and in the Sky Quarry, but there are no houses there currently.”

My brow was still raised. “Sky Quarry?”

Cyan opened her mouth, but her brother beat her to it. “The area of the city that’s built into the mountains. All of that area is houses with steps carved into the mountain, and it’s where most pegasi live. We’ve had griffins come to sightsee and visit, and that’s where they stay as well.” He then looked at her sister, both of his eyes now open. “You know, sis, our guest room is still open, isn’t it?”

The smile returned to her face as she gave a nod. “Indeed it is. Gilda, do you mind sharing a house with us while we wait for more houses to finish?”

I looked at the both of them, my mouth open and shaking a little. There were no words that came to mind, and the best thing I could think of was throwing my arms around Cobalt. “Why the hell are you doing this for me? Cobalt, you don’t even know me!”

Everything about him made me want to stay around him, but at the same time I was angry at him. Already he had told me his life story, shown me around the city, made me a somebody without question, and was now offering his home to me, all without known a thing about me. Not only that, but he sounded completely fine with the fact that I had just cursed at him as he patted my back.

“I promised I’d tell you later. I have one more place to show you, and I’m sure you’ll want to spend some time there. After that, I’ll show you our home, and I’ll tell you there, okay?”

I looked him right in the eyes as I released him from my embrace. “Where, exactly?”

There he went closing one eyes again. “Let’s just say… you’re gonna love it. See ya, sis!”

The sweet mare waved to both of us. “See you both later! And Cobalt, behave yourself around such a pretty girl.”

He didn’t really blush this time, but he did turn to his sister with a fake glare, putting his hoof in front of his eyes and switching it between her and himself. Another laugh came out of him as we left the “Paper Palace”. “See? I told you that you were pretty.”

I’m pretty sure my face stayed red all the way until we came to part of the city wall close to the Art and Entertainment District. I was in desperate need of a distraction, so I decided to mess with the feathers on my head, since they were actually getting in my eyes a bit. “Cobalt, can you stop that? I mean, I’m not used to compliments, and it feels nice and all… but since I’m not used to it I keep losing my cool!”

Cobalt flashed me a grin, holding his hoof out to show me the much smaller gate in this wall. “Let me ask you something: Griffins are omnivorous, right?”

That fact that he knew that actually surprised me; I thought most ponies thought we only ate meat. “Yeah, Gildas can eat both-“

He snickered, nudging my shoulder. “Gildas can eat?”

I snapped at his arm, growling at him in more of a flustered defense rather than actual anger. “Griffins can eat both meat and plants. How did you know?”

“I looked at your mouth. You don’t have a full set of sharp teeth, just two extra canines. Your beak, however, it’s rather sharp, making you able to cut meat off of prey and chop it up once it’s in your mouth, and it also allows you to cut up thick plants and grind them up with your flat teeth.”

My eyes widened a bit after he was done. “Huh, you know your foreign anatomy. So what’s behind the gate?”

With a smile, he opened it to reveal a thick forest beyond the wall. I felt myself start to drool when told me what it was. “Gilda, welcome to the hunting grounds, fresh meat and rare plants for both medicine and food.”

Chapter 4: Where the Changing Starts

Home

Story 4

Chapter 4: Where the Changing Starts

By: SleeplessScribe

The sight of her licking her chops was hilarious. It took a decent bit of effort to keep from laughing as I nudged her through the gate. “Meet me back at the fountain when you’re done and I’ll show you the house, alright? There I’ll answer all your questions. And hey, don’t take too much, we don’t want the animals dying off.”

She rolled her eyes at me, turning back to the forest. “If you say so.” With that, she took off, leaving me with one more stop before everything came together.

I had to go across the city again to the Market District, slipping into the florist shop. The place was always amazingly organized, with potted plants, a floating garden, and even a few small trees in the back. Each section was well marked, and each section was further separated by season. A small voice came from behind the counter, but when I looked there was no one there.

“Just a moment, I- oof!” The mare was carrying far too many seed packets in her forelegs, and she stumbled out of the room behind the counter. I managed to get to her and help her steady herself, but not before she dropped a few of the packs. Poor girl had dirt stains all over her white coat and her light brown mane. Cerulean was the oddball of the three of us, getting most of her traits from out mother, even down to her magenta eyes. Her usually curly mane was a mess, random hairs sticking out and most of her curls hanging down straight.

“Cerulean! What happened, you look horrible!”

Her lips curled inward, forming a thin line across her face. “Well thanks, love you too. Just an accident with one of the plants. Today’s been so busy, I’ve just been all over the shop. Petunia’s on her way back from a delivery right now, so it’s just me. Anyway, what’s up?”

After a deep breath, I prepared to give her a long and convincing story after I told her. However, when she saw my face, she shot me a glare. “This is about that griffin you were with earlier, isn’t it? Let me guess; no houses, you offered our guest room, right?”

I sighed, trying to keep my focus on her. “You’re as sharp as ever. Look, I know how you feel about them after what happened, but the first thing you need to know is that she’s a female. I’m sure she doesn’t have any ties to what happened to you. Not only that, but I’ve told you time and time again what’s in the past is done, and nopony thinks of you any differently because of it.”

She slammed her hooves on the counter, gritting her teeth. “Maybe not everyone, but you’ve seen how some of the others look at me! With her hanging around us, that’s only going to convince them even further that what happened to me was completely within my will. All they’re going to think now is that our whole family is a bunch of sick, mixed-breeding beast lovers!”

Now it was my turn to do the hoof slamming. Getting angry was never something I did often, in fact, it happened so rarely that me raising my voice like this sent shivers up the spines of pretty much anyone around me. “Cerulean! That was both racist and extremely hateful! Listen to me, girl! You know me well enough to know that I wouldn’t do this without good reason. You may think your past experiences with griffins was horrific, but I should be living proof that not all of them are bad, and Gilda shows a shit ton of signs of abuse! I haven’t told her everything I know yet, but I plan to. Cerulean, she needs a home. She needs strong friends. Please, sis, you don’t have to talk to her, or even look at her. Just, please let her stay.”

She shook her head, letting out an “ugh” before turning back to me. “Whatever. I’m only doing this for you, Cobalt. She can stay, but don’t expect me to have anything to do with her.”

Before she could react, I had her in a tight hug, rocking her from side to side. “Thank you, sis, thank you!”

Now that I had the approval of both my sisters, all that was left was to wait on my friend to return from her hunting. I didn’t expect her back any time soon, but luckily for me, I was gifted with a way to occupy my time.

Graffiti was forbidden in any building not within the borders of the art district, and the unicorn wasn’t even making an effort to hide his lack of talent. Walking up behind him, I shouted as loudly as I could and prepared for a chase. “Stop! You violated the law! Graffiti is a 70 bit fine, now pay the court or serve a sentence!”

They always chose the resist arrest option. However, this fool made a grand mistake; when he took off, he headed straight up the south road, and Ol’ Red was still on duty. Now, there have been times where criminals have outrun me, managed to get past the crossbowmen in our sentry towers, and even gotten over the wall, but in all the years I’ve been in the guard, nothing has ever gotten past Red.

I couldn’t even resist singing the little song we had written about him as we approached the main gate. To get his attention, I sang it loud, and he immediately turned our way when he heard it. “Come on, somepony, why don’t you run? Ol’ Red’s itchin’ to have a little fun! Come on, buddy, let’s see if you can be the first one to get past Ol’ Red!”

He didn’t have a chance. Before Red could even get close to the budding artist, he was laid out on the ground, two scaly talons holding down his forelegs. Both Red and I just froze, staring at the griffin girl with wide eyes. “What? I heard you shout and rushed over to help. What’d this idiot try and do?”

The unicorn tried to struggle, but Gilda moved to allow Red to hold him down. With one hoof, he kept the fool down on the ground for good. “Clown thought he’d gain some recognition by spray-painting the side of someone’s house. Twister, you mind taking him in?”

She shook her head, knocking him over his own and lifting him onto her back. I was surprised she could even lift him, as small as she was. Red and I exchanged nods and a hoof shake, both turning to Gilda now. “Dang, Gilda, you got some speed if you came all the way here from… wherever you were.”

My friend kept her eyes on me, even as she addressed Red. “Eh, I was on my way to the square, anyway. I just took a shortcut to cut him off.”

We both made our way back to the town square after Red was done patting Gilda’s back. There were already ponies working on cleaning up the paint, but we could still make out enough for both of our jaws to drop.

On the wall, in bright red, all capital letters, was “Get out, squawk!” I turned to Gilda, whose head was lowered and her teeth were bared. Reaching over, I wiped some of the blood she had missed off her beak, putting my foreleg around her. “Let’s go, Gilda. He’s going to be tried for a lot more than vandalism now. That’s a straight-up hate crime.”

She didn’t say anything, but also didn’t put up any resistance as I led her past the gates into the federal area. The two paths in the road came together again if you went far enough and led to a large, stone staircase. At the top, there was already a house under construction, but mine was a bit higher up. There were stairs on the left and the right, and each led to a different platform that had been carved into the mountain and now served as stable foundations for pegasi to make their homes. I didn’t think Gilda would take much enjoyment at the view right now, but once we got to my place in the center of the first row on the right, I knew I had to show her at some point.

As soon as we were inside, Gilda screamed and wrapped her arms around me. “Damn it, damn it, damn it! Everywhere I fucking go it’s like this! Everywhere I fucking go!” She began to beat her fists against my chest plate, and as I took it off, along with my boots, and brought her to me, she began to cry.

The first room you came in consisted of a small kitchen beside the door that opened up into the living room, and I led Gilda onto one of the two couches on either side of the coffee table in the center. She was still crying even after I sat down, but I still kept my voice low. “It won’t be for long, Gilda. I promise you, I’m going to make sure everyone in this city knows that intolerance and racism will be met the guard’s own form of prejudice.”

She looked up at me for a moment, and I did my best to dry her eyes. “I did promise I’d tell you what I knew when we got here, as well. From what I’ve gathered, you had problems with abuse from someone much larger than you, and it was someone you used to look up to, have little to no experience with legitimate greetings, and obviously have never really had a place you felt you belonged in. How right am I?”

The bright yellow eyes were still a bit misty, and widened as I finished talking. “How did you figure that out?”

I lifted her onto the couch, allowing her to lean on me a bit as I cleared my throat. “When you spoke to both Bellows and Ol’ Red, you never made eye contact and you lowered your voice. However, I noticed you standing up straighter than normal, and your chest was puffed out a little. To me it seemed like large males bring back memories, causing you to address them vocally with respect, but prepare yourself physically to defend yourself. You were a nervous wreck when trying to speak to Bellows, and I’m not sure if you noticed, but he actually held his hoof out when I first introduced you to him, but drew back with you didn’t respond. As for the feeling of belonging… well, you pretty much proved that to me.”

Gilda’s gaze shifted downward as she lifted herself off of my shoulder. “How did you know it was abuse?”

That was a question I wanted to avoid, but I had promised to be honest with her. “I saw the scar under your left wing and got a small glimpse of the one on your chest, beneath the feathers. That coupled with your body language is what made me think you were beaten.”

She let out a long sigh, laying down on the sofa as a cat would. “My father. For seventeen years, he’s despised the fact that his first born child was a female, and he was already sexist to begin with. He’d hit me, cut me, and the typical stuff, but he’d also do shit like burning my wings with hot stones, leave me out in the woods after breaking my legs, and cruel bullshit like that. It was like that with my mother, too… he hated us. I don’t know what the fuck I did, but he hated us! I tried to run. I enrolled in a summer flight camp, and I tried before to find a new home after that for a whole year! It just… no matter where I went, Cobalt, nobody wanted me around! Do you have any idea how that makes me feel? I… I try to hide behind a mean, cool attitude, but deep down, I feel so broken.”

Staying calm was my priority right now. Gilda felt she could pour her heart out to me now, and I wasn’t about to let newfound anger for a horrible father get in the way of helping my friend. I picked her up again, holding her close to me. As a guard, it wasn’t my job to be some psychiatrist, and it wasn’t even in my job description to actually be a friend to the citizens, but as far as I was concerned, making others happy was more important to me than fighting monsters, and Gilda needed special attention if she was going to have a happy ending. The great thing about being captain was that shifts were designed without me actually being around, and I had my lieutenant, who preferred the office to the front lines, take care of my paperwork for me. Basically, I was free to give this griffin as much attention as she needed.

“You don’t need to feel hated anymore, Gilda. If it means anything at all, you have me. I’m very grateful that you’ve chosen to give trusting me a chance, and I promise I won’t betray that trust.”

I felt her talons wrap around my hoof as she looked up again. Her eyes were dry now, but the expression on her face was still a little forlorn. “Cobalt. You know griffin culture. There’s a reason I’m so withholding when it comes to trust. I won’t lie… I have friends in Ponyville now, I don’t fully trust them. Not even Dash, not after what happened the first time I was there.”

The hand she had around my hoof was now against my scar, and the hoof was on top. “Gilda, I know. You’re not just trusting me with your past, you’ve decided to share everything with me. I know how trust works with griffins, and I can promise you I’ll be here to share your burdens. Believe me.”

She pulled me into another hug, sniffling before she spoke. “How do you do it? I’ve only known you for a few hours and you’ve managed to befriend me.”

I couldn’t help but smile as I patted the girl’s back. “I try really hard. That should tell you just how much I care, Gilda.”

Somehow, my friend managed a weak smile, gently hitting my shoulder. “I’d stop with all that, Cobalt. I’ve given you my friendship, but if you keep it up, I might just fall in love.”

The smile grew as she saw my reddening face, and eventually she started to chuckle. “That’s what you get for all those flustering jokes you made.”

Gotta hand it to her, she did a pretty good job of giving me a taste of my own medicine. With a nervous chuckle, I rubbed the back of my head. “You feeling any better? Think a kiss would help?”

I leaned forward, puckering my lips and making fake kissy sounds, causing the griffin to press her hand against my face and push on it. “Didn’t I say stop? You’re an idiot, Cobalt!” The great thing was that I had gotten her smiling again, and that in itself was a reward.

“I try my best, Gilda. Cheered you up, didn’t I?” After she rolled her eyes, I stood up and brought her with me. “You want to see that room? I’m sure you’d like to test out the bed.”

Son of a bitch, I did it again. After a brief silence, I threw my hooves up in front of me, shaking them as both of us began to blush. “That is not what I meant! That is not what I meant at all!”

We stared at each other for a moment before laughing again, having to wipe our eyes before I led her down the hall. At the end of the hall was one of the bathrooms, with the other one being the first door on the left. The second door on the right was our guest room, featuring a large, circular bed with a bookshelf, writing desk with a lamp, and a bedside table. It wasn’t much to us, but Gilda’s dropped jaw and wide eyes told me it was more than she had ever had. “You’re seriously letting me stay here?”

All I could do was nod before I found myself in another hug, almost falling down as she did. “Well that’s certainly a way to say thank you!” Don’t ask me why, but I had a habit of closing my left eye whenever I was about to surprise someone, and this time was no exception. “I noticed you had some money in your bag too, and I do believe I’ve got the perfect job for you.”

The new look on her face told me she already knew. With her eyes half closed and a small smile she got off me and helped me up. “Let me guess. You want me in the guard because of the two criminals I helped you catch, right?”

I gave her a nice pat on the back, my eyes still closed as I grinned. “See? I knew you were more than just good looks! You’re a smart one, too!”

At this point, my teasing was making her less flustered and just making her roll her eyes. With a smug smile, she gently pushed me into the wall and walked back out to the living room. “Cobalt, I’m warning you. I think I feel myself slipping, and another comment like that might make me kiss you.”

Of all the things she could possibly do, she just had to choose the table turning route. Not only that, but she was a whole lot better and getting me flustered than I was at getting her this way. It didn’t help that you could at least tell I was joking, but Gilda sounded completely serious. Had it not been for her expression, I actually would have thought she was. “See, Gilda? All it takes is some time with me, and it’s instant therapy!”

Let me just say this: in all my nineteen years of being alive, I don’t think I’ve seen anything as pretty as genuine smile from that griffin. Her cold exterior was starting to melt, and seeing the girl that dwelled within was just… amazing. “Red wasn’t too far off, I guess. It took a lot longer than he said, but just… having someone I can confide in makes me feel so much better. Thank you again, Cobalt.”

We both sat down on the couch, and she leaned her head on my shoulder. “It’s what I do, Gilda. So what do you say?”

She lifted herself off of me with that smile still on her face. “It’s a start. I guess your ‘seal of approval’ doesn’t get me instant promotions, does it?”

After another light chuckle, I shook my head. “Sadly, it doesn’t. What I can do, however, is try and get you a position that won’t have you standing in one place all day. A street route or a sky patrol would be best. However, you are going to need training, but with me, basic stuff should only take a day or two.”

I waited for her to at least give me a nod, and when she did, I got up and put all my armor back on. “Looks like I’ll get to give you that tour of the headquarters sooner than I thought.”

-*- *- *-

The fortress was a lot bigger on the inside than the outside view made it look. There was actually an entire back wing I didn’t see with a full-sized hospital. After Cobalt had taken me through the entire base, he brought me back to the lobby and into the right wing where all the offices were. It was organized in a similar manner to the Office Post, which is what the real name for the Paper Palace was, with multiple hallways with rooms on both sides. I was brought to the center that all the halls converged to, where the entire wall was blank save for the door before us.

We were greeted by a light green unicorn in silver armor akin to Cobalt’s gold, except for the fact that she wore a helmet. She was busying herself with a stack of papers, taking one sheet down at a time, reading through it, and either crossing something out or scribbling at the bottom. It was kind of funny how she didn’t realize we were there until my friend cleared his throat, causing her to jump and turn to him.

“Oh! My apologies, sir, it’s been a busy day. What did you need, Captain?”

She didn’t seem to even notice me, and it wasn’t until Cobalt actually pointed me out that she turned my way. “Shatter, I need a new name added to the payroll, a new shift schedule to account for our newest recruit, and I’d like for you to re-map the street patrols or the sky patrols, it’s your choice.” He then turned to me with his eyes still on her. “Shatter, this is Gilda. Gilda, this is my lieutenant, Shield Shatter. If you ever get to see her magic in action, you’ll learn how she got that name.”

Reaching my hand out to her would have probably been my first course of action had I bet met with something other than a judgmental glare. With chin now resting against her hooves, she addressed Cobalt while still looking at me. “Sorry, Captain, but all routes are filled. Remapping them and rescheduling will take hours of work and a mandatory briefing for all those affected.”

His response was quick and short, but in three words he managed to shoot down any possible argument the officer could’ve presented. “I don’t care.”

Her eyes widened and she turned to her superior. “Excuse me?”

Cobalt stood up, placing both his hooves on the desk. “Need I remind you that I could simply do this myself, seeing as how that kind of paperwork is, indeed, the captain’s responsibility? Shatter, you’re here because you don’t like being stationed or patrolling around, but remember that I call the shots, so get it done by noon tomorrow. Things are going to start changing in Meadowbrook, starting with intolerance in my soldiers. You look at Gilda here, and all you see is a griffin, but one way or another, I’m going to make it so that you, and everyone else in this city learns to see beyond what’s outside and look here.”

Both the unicorn’s and my attention was drawn to the hoof that was now on Cobalt’s chest. He was right, and I reached my hand out to the lieutenant. Smiling was a bit much, but I did manage to avoid scowling, at the very least. “I promise I’m not like what you think all griffins are.”

The brown eyes shifted from my hand to the colt and back to my hand several times. “Sir, you know I respect your authority and your judgment. If you truly believe this one is different,” the corners of her mouth slowly began to turn up as her hoof met my hand, “then I guess working a bit of overtime wouldn’t be too much of a hassle. Welcome to the guard, Gilda.”

Chapter 5: Gilda's Secret

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Story 4

Chapter 5: Gilda’s Secret

By: SleeplessScribe

Now I could feel my own smile coming on. For the first time since I can remember, a pony who had judged me based on species was actually trying to set aside her bigotry. There was a lot I wanted to say, but all I could manage was a simple “Thank you.”

Cobalt and I both rose, but Shatter rose as well and spoke before we got out the door. “Cobalt- I-I mean, Cobalt, Sir? I’m very aware of the current housing situation, so I do have to question you allowing her to live in the ground residential.”

The pegasus shook his head without actually turning to her. “She’s staying with me until the new houses in the Sky Quarry are completed.”

Shatter cocked her brow, rubbing her chin slowly. “Does Cerulean know? Is it really a good idea to bring back those memor-“

“Back to work, Lieutenant.”

Without a word, the unicorn opened a drawer and pulled out a long list, though Cobalt closed the door before I could see any more. “What was that about?”

He let out a long sigh as we crossed into the left wing through the lobby. “My other sister, Cerulean, had a rather bad experience with a griffin. She thinks it’s ruined her reputation in the city, though I’ve not seen any evidence validating her suspicions.”

One thing came to my mind, and it was the only thing I was really concerned with now. “I won’t ask you what happened, but will you take me to see her? Maybe when she sees me, she’ll try giving me a chance just like Shield Shatter.”

It took a long while to get a response. We went down two corridors, through the indoor training grounds, and finally came to the armory before he spoke. “I guess it’s worth a try, but don’t get your hopes up. To this day, she tells me she’ll never forgive what happened. Now then, do you want a weapon?”

The sudden change in subject kind of frustrated me, but I guess we did have to go through all of this before we could even leave the fortress. “If I have to fight, I prefer doing it with my claws.”

He gave me a nod, tossing me a rather… vertical bronze breast plate. There was no symbol on it, so I knew right then I’d have to start from the very bottom, but the shape had me raising my brows. Upon seeing my expression, he laughed a bit. “A griffin or two has actually served in the guard, so we decided to have at least five sets of armor designed for the griffin anatomy, just in case. That’s the smallest I could find, so try it on.”

The piece itself wasn’t actually designed that differently from my friend’s; the lower part functioned somewhat like the bones in a snakes mouth, meaning they separated into four parts behind the wing and opened up to allow the wearing in and out. The padding inside fit my perfectly, and the only differences I really noted were the color and the face that mine had plates on hinges for the shoulders, and Cobalt seemed to have removed his.

He raising one hoof to his mouth with the other hoof supporting his elbow. The light red eyes scanned me up and down for a moment before he cleared his throat. “Alright, Gilda, I need to tell you two things. One: I don’t think the standard boots will be good for you. You said you prefer fighting with your hands, however I will require you to wear something sturdy on them so you can block attacks from an armed assailant, but I don’t think putting anything on your paws will help, so there’s that.”

“And the second thing?”

It was just a little cute seeing the red tint spread across his light brown face. A little. “Two: Uh, don’t take this the wrong way, but you have a very nice body that you should be proud of. No offense, but given your past, it must’ve taken a lot to look like this.”

Just when I thought I was going to be the one making him flustered from now on, he drops that on me. An idea popped into my head, and I tried my best to play it cool until it was time to execute it. “Well, don’t take this the wrong way, but….”

Back when I said the thing that prompted me to do it, I really should have thought about how I was going to back up my claim. I most likely thought the statement would’ve been enough to get Cobalt to stop teasing me, but since it didn’t I had to think fast. The taste of blood was quite evident as I drew back, but cut on his upper lip was barely visible. “I told you I’d do it if you made another comment like that.”

The captain took of one of his boots, raising the bare hoof to his lip for a moment. After looking at it and seeing that it wasn’t actually bleeding very badly, he flashed a grin at me. “I’m not sure if I should just grab you right now and show you the proper way to do it, or just let you keep making mistakes until you get it right.”

With that, what I thought would be the idea that embarrassed Cobalt more than anything I had done turned into his chance to make me more embarrassed than he ever had. That is, until his lips met the top of my beak in return. “How about we just keep it at doing that should you ever want to again, huh?”

“You’re not even the least bit flustered that I just tried to kiss you?”

Cobalt simply shook his head. “Nope.”

I scoffed, rolling my eyes. “You suck.”

His mouth curved into a smile that stretched all the way across his muzzle. The fact that he was in the air a little now told me that whatever he was about to say was bad enough to warrant him trying to fly away, and it was. “And one of these days you’re gonna swallow.”

A loud, hearty laugh echoed through armory when he saw my wide eyes, dropped jaw, and completely red face. I had absolutely no comeback for that, and he knew it. “Try all you want, Gilda, you’ll never beat me at my own game!”

I thought about trying to chase him, but in the end I just sighed and walked up to him. “Thanks, Cobalt. You’re making things really easy right now.”

After touching down he brought me into a hug. “Hey, it’s what I do. You ready to try and see my other sister?”

I nodded, kind of wanting to rub up against him. Anytime I ever felt that urge, I blamed my inner cat. That’s all a griffin really is, honestly. We’re just big, feathered cat…birds. Catbirds.

As we made our way to the exit, the colt nudged me some. The smile was no longer on his face, but he didn’t look unhappy. “Gilda, I have to say this. If Cerulean says something offensive… please try and forgive her. Both Cyan and I have promised not to tell anyone that doesn’t know, but believe me when I say you can’t hold everything against her.”

My gaze shifted downward a bit before I gave a nod. “I understand. I’ll try not to be pushy, either.”

“Good. Now, I want to go see Bellows first so we can take care of the combat issue. Normally, griffins accepted weapons, so we simply gave them armguards. You, however, are going to need something to protect your hands when you fight. Thing is, should the city ever be attacked by a monster, use of your claws will be authorized. However, I only allow non-lethal force unless it’s to preserve safety. Basically only in kill or be killed situations.”

Before I even realized what had happened, we were already in front of Bellows’ forge again. The big stallion shifted his gaze between us for a moment with his brow raised. “Yes?”

Without even asking, Cobalt raised one of my hands onto the counter. “Bellows, do you think you could make some kind of gauntlets for Gilda here? She’s part of the guard now, and prefers unarmed fighting. I was hoping you could fix something up that covered her hands and not just here lower arms.”

Bellows didn’t even say anything before heading back into that room behind the forge. He returned with what looked like a clamp with two thick, white pads on the end. “I can do it, no charge, bud. Gilda, keep your hand as flat as you can. I’m going to have to put pressure on it, but it shouldn’t hurt.

I did as he said, allowing him to set my hand between the clamp and press. It did hurt a tad bit, but I was really grateful that he was considerate enough not to include my talons in it. That kind of pressing would have snapped them in half for sure. Once he was done, he pulled each half off and held it over the fire for a moment. “Once I get the mold, I fill it with a flexible, yet sturdy compound kind of like rubber. I can bend it and move it to replicate your range of movement, but it’s strong enough not to break. That way I can design the gloves to allow you to curl and uncurl your claws and such. I’ll close up early today and get to work on them, so see me in the morning, and they should be done.”

Cobalt, I’m sure, wanted to thank him, but I actually beat him to it. “I appreciate it.”

The big guy smiled at me before changing the sign in front of the counter from “open” to “closed”. “Any friend of Cobalt’s is a friend of mine.” Once again, he just returned to the back room, leaving Cobalt to take my hand.

“The Meadow is just across the street, and that’s the florist my sister runs.”

Rolling my eyes was the least I could do when he said that. “The Meadow? Really?”

He gave me a nudge in the shoulder, chuckling. “She’s not very creative, alright? Be nice.”

I wanted to respond, but we were already in the shop now, and I didn’t want to potentially ruin my first impression. The mare was quite different from both her siblings in terms of color, and the glare I was met with told she was a lot different in terms of attitude, too. Cerulean slowly turned to her brother and said, “Well, the fact that she hasn’t pounced on my yet is proof of your claim that she’s a female, so there’s that.”

Cobalt’s words made a lot more sense now. Being nice wasn’t going to be as easy as I thought it was. Getting angry wasn’t going to get me anywhere though, so I extended my hand to her in spite of the comment. “Hi, I’m Gilda.”

There was a little bit more I wanted to add on, but the slap pretty much silenced me. “I thought you promised I wouldn’t have to talk to or even look at her!” She then turned to me, but I noticed her eyes shifting around, apparently trying to look anywhere but at my own. “I want you out, now, you squawk! You’re lucky I’m even letting you in my house. Speaking of, Cobalt, I think I’ll be staying at an inn tonight.”

Now it was my friend’s turn to glare as he got close to his sister’s face. “Cerulean, I swear, I will put you under house arrest if you go to that damn bar again. We’ve been over this, trying to drink this shit away isn’t going to solve your problems!”

Cerulean’s hostile expression began to fade into something calmer, though her tone wasn’t convincing anyone. “Get out. Both of you get out. You’re not the boss of me, little brother.”

All he did was sigh, nudging me out the door. “I have half a mind to tell dad.”

“Cobalt, I’m not going to say it again. Get out.”

The door slammed behind him as the both of us walked off. I was angry, but I surprised myself by not yelling at her myself. Also surprising was how fast this day had gone by. When I looked up at the sky, the sun was already starting to go down. I felt a weight on my shoulder, turning to the source. “Sorry.”

He simply shook his head. “Don’t be. Think it’s possible to forgive her?”

After giving my own sigh, I kind of just shrugged. “I’m sure I can, and while I’m not going to ask, I am going to say it’d be easier if I knew what happened.”

Cobalt turned to the direction of his house. “It’s getting late. Go and grab some food if you’re hungry, and if you think you can keep her from finding out, I’ll tell you.”

I turned to him to respond, but he was already on his way to the Sky Quarry. If my stomach hadn’t started to rumble, I would have followed him, but instead I made my way to the forest outside. My mind was everywhere but a few choice thoughts stayed in my head for more than two seconds. Cobalt and I had only been together for a day, but his words and actions had me already starting to feel close to him.

Honestly, I had no experience with romance. I had no idea what love actually felt like, but I knew enough to say that he was more than just a friend to me. That stallion was doing so much out of the kindness of his own heart, the likes of which not even Dash had shown. Even in flight camp, Dash would just try and distract me when old memories came up instead of trying to find out why I was hurting, but the captain didn’t let me just say no.

You know, if I wasn’t in such a mix of moods, I would have laughed when my head met the gate. I was so lost in thought I didn’t even realize it was there until it was too late, but luckily I was able to shake it off quickly. As I opened the gate, I began to think again, this time about the future. Cobalt was someone I genuinely liked, and someone I couldn’t imagine being permanently separated from. In a way, he was a crutch. He gave me something to lean on, something to confide in, that I had never had before. The more I thought, the more sure I was that I could really tell him anything, even what I couldn’t tell the ponies in Ponyville. It was then that I decided two things: that I would go out on a limb and ask Cobalt out and not care if he saw it as a date or not, and to stop walking when I’m lost in thought.

There was a little bit more humor to this accident, though. Think about it, what would you think to bump into in the forest when you’re not paying attention? You would walk into a tree, trip over some roots, accidentally step into a rabbit hole, and stuff like that. However, do you think you’d ever bump into the hind leg of a dragon?

I looked up at the stony beast in awe. His scales were a sky-blue with three grey horns atop his head, with claws and wing flaps of the same color. Everything about him made me think of stone; his scales were jagged and square, and what looked like cracks-though I assumed them to be wrinkles-covered his body. Two long, white, sharp fangs protruded from the middle of his upper lip, and when I looked down I spotted the grey, axe-like blades on the tip of his tail.

The beast turned to me, his yellow eyes focused on what was probably easy prey to him. However, though his voice was low and raspy, there was a calm gentleness to it as he spoke. “Drem yol lok fahdon. Greetings, friend. I am Vahlok, guardian of this city.”

Falling to my knees was the only think I could think to do. I tried to find words, but he gave me no chance to speak.

“Alok kiir. Arise, child. I sense great dismay coming from you. Tinvaak do hin faas. Speak of your fear.”

I had no desire to be disrespectful, and something told me that the fact that I found him just as my mind began racing like this couldn’t have been just coincidence. “Vahlok, I’m conflicted. So many in this city hate me merely for what I am, but I can’t just leave. I feel I’m becoming attached, possibly attracted, to someone whose kindness knows no end. This city feels like it could be a new beginning, a way to get over my past, but the hate I’m still receiving keeps me from feeling… home.”

The dragon rose and stretched his arms and wings. He was smaller than the dragons that I’d seen, being only as tall as the trees around us, but he was still huge compared to me. “ Nust los meyye. They are fools. One who hates another is foolish enough, one who hates another they know nothing of is an imbecile. I see all that occurs in the city, child. I have witnessed the bond forming between you and the pegasus you speak of. Zu’u wah ok fron. I am friend to his kin. Little griffin, listen to your heart. Where it says to go, you go. If it says love, you love. Do not let those that judge you for what you are hinder your quest for happiness.”

Given his stony look and the fangs coming out of his mouth, it wasn’t easy to tell that the mouth movement was a smile. The large front claw brought itself over me and fell on my other side, as if he were trying to hold me like a father would to a child. “Above all, remember this: never validate these judgments. All things take time, but as they see who you truly are, they shall learn the error of their ways.”

The heavy hand moved away from me momentarily. When it returned, his claws were closed, but opened to reveal a dead deer that he laid before me. “The secret you hide will be difficult to tell, but you cannot continue to hide it. You need not tell it now, but you should not hesitate for too long. I am eternally connected to the sky, and I see all the clouds see. The things you have done do not equate you to the image the citizens have. You must move past it. Now eat, child. It is late, and you must return home.”

I gave him a gracious bow. “Thank you, Vahlok!”

After about an hour, I was starting to think Cobalt was right. Not about the griffin, but about me frequenting this bar. Four mixed drinks and three glasses of tequila still had me sloshed, but when I first visited this place, it took one beer to do me in. Finally throwing in the towel I paid the bartender, half walking and half stumbling out of the door. Unfortunately, I had spent all the bits I had on me-only about ten-on my bingeing, so I’d have to return home even if I planned to stay at an inn.

I was surprised I was even able to walk, but being mobile didn’t mean I knew where I was. Falling to my knees, I started looking around when I heard hoofsteps nearby. Coherent enough to know I was currently in an alley in the residential district, I turned around only to end up on the ground. The pale orange stallion really didn’t seem to mind, though my somewhat blurry vision and his dark sunglasses made it difficult to actually tell.

His grin was unmistakable, though. He took a few steps toward me and forced me to back up until I was against the wall. “Why you backing up, babe? I thought you liked it when guys came at you like this, yeah?”

Looks like Cobalt really didn’t know his citizens that well after all. He was constantly claiming that nopony’s opinion of me had changed since the incident. Obviously, he hadn’t seen all the new looks I’d been getting. “Back up, asshole. You don’t know me!”

The idiot’s grin only got wider as each step brought him closer. “Tell you what, babe, how about you come home with me, and I’ll show you what a stallion can do that no griffin guy can, yeah?”

I finally managed to get back on my hooves, but he was already within foreleg’s reach. “No! Get away from me!”

He tried to put his forelegs around me. “Come on, baby. I promise, I treat you real good.”

“Didn’t mommy ever teach you that ‘no’ means ‘no’, you creep?” The voice came from the end of the alley, but by the time my assailant hand turned around, she was already behind him. She was silhouetted by the light behind her, though the voice and the outline were unmistakable.

“What are you doing here?”

“I’m busy.” That stallion flew backwards. He landed on his back, and she pressed her hind paw against his stomach. “Listen here, dickwad. No means no, and you should be thanking Celestia, or Vahlok, or whoever you worship that you’re still alive. Now get out of my sight before I decide to change that.”

The idiot took off once she took her paw off of him. I was still trying to steady myself as she came over, but instead of getting mad at me too, she but both her hands on my shoulders. “You’re drunk.”

“No shit, you think?” I pushed her off of me, trying to stumble past her. The griffin didn’t let me, though.

She grabbed my tail, and had she not said what she said, I would have smacked her with my wings. “I heard everything. Cobalt told me you had a bad experience with griffins. He said both he and your sister promised not to tell anyone that didn’t know. However, based on what he said, I have to ask. Cerulean, did a griffin rape you?”

Honestly, I was expecting angry screams and a kick to the face. Her reaction was a welcome alternative. She simply lied down on the stone, and I heard a few audible sniffles. “Your people are monsters. They took something from me I’ll never fucking get back! All you squawks are nothing but barbaric rapist beasts!”

The fact that she was crying didn’t bother me. I was now concerned with finding out the details. It was something I had not yet even told Cobalt, yet it felt right for me to tell her. “This is going to be hard, but do you have a name?”

She slammed her hoof on the ground. “Gerard! How could I forget it with him constantly demanding I say it as he violated me? Why the fuck do you even care, you bitch!”

With closed eyes and a calm mind, I set my hand on her shoulder. That sealed the deal. I made a decision right then and there: Cerulean was going to be the first to ever hear my dark secret. “Please, hear me out completely before you react. Gerard… is one of my two brothers. Cerulean, you’re not the only one that the males in my family have made a move on.” She was now looking up at me, but the rage in her eyes disappeared when I moved the white feathers on my chest away. “This scar came from when one of them tried to rape me. We got into a fight, and I killed him.”

Chapter 6: Revenge

Home

Story 4

Chapter 6: Revenge

By: SleeplessScribe

Cerulean simply stared at me. While seeing her cry was now starting to get to me, at least she no longer seemed angry. Through her sniffles, she managed to speak. “Are you… are you being serious? Your own brother?”

I’d have to tell Cobalt all this at some point too, what harm was there in telling someone else to rehearse? “Griffins in Equestria are few… males will do anything to make sure they don’t die off. You’re right, they are sick fucks. But please, Cerulean, give me a chance.”

I reached my hand out to her again, and while she was obviously drunk, she could still see it. A small smile began to form as she raised her hoof to take it, but it immediately disappeared after a loud roar broke the newly created silence. Booming footsteps came from our left accompanied by the would-be-rapist running past us and screaming.

Moments later we were confronted by a massive minotaur-like beast. It reminded me quite a bit of Vahlok in the sense that much of its body seemed comprised of stone, with flesh and fur taking the place of areas where the stone was not present. Icy blue eyes glowed from holes in what appeared to be a horned, stone mask on its extremely hairy head, which made it seem like it had a beard. The thing reared back, slamming a fist into the spot we had been sitting at, and my reflexes alone were what kept us from becoming pancakes.

I let go of Cerulean and left her back in the alley. “Stay here, I’m going to try and lure this thing away! No buts, either, do what I say!”

Without giving her a chance to respond, I took to the sky. A quick fly by his head revealed that a crystal similar to the one my father found had been shoved into the top of his head, hidden from a front view by the mask. Luckily for me, what he had in size and strength he lacked in speed. He was big and bulky, but his swings were far too slow to even come close to hitting me. I tried swooping in between his stone plates, and while my talons easily tore through his unprotected areas, he seemed unfazed by anything I did.

Not even getting under his “beard” and attacking him where one would expect the jugular to be seemed to do anything. Finally I got a saving grace in the form of a kick strong enough to knock the thing off balance. Cobalt wasn’t kidding; Ol’ Red really was strong. He looked at me and motioned to the main gates. “This thing is tough, Gilda! You need to help me get it to the sentry towers!”

I gave him a nod, and with our combined efforts we finally pissed him off enough to get him to follow us. Between my speed and claws making his desire to kill me stronger and Red’s kicks to the back of the head pushing him on, we were able to get him onto one of the main roads, giving us a straight shot to the gates. As if that weren’t enough, a gold blur zoomed past us, flying circles around the beast’s head.

Cobalt had two long blades fitted into the loops on his boots, and he was constantly swinging as he flew. Finally, he landed on the back of its neck and dug his blades in deep, causing it to run forward. Once it went through the open gates Cobalt shouted, “Now!” and, from the sentry towers, four harpoons with thick ropes stuck themselves in the monster’s shoulders and head. The thing was strong, but so were the ropes and the three ponies on each that were pulling against them.

The captain flew down and grabbed a hold of the beard. He looked to us as Shatter ran between its legs and turned to face him, motioning to the fur. Taking the hint, both of us grabbed it and pulled, forcing it to hold its head forward, and I soon learned why the unicorn was named Shield Shatter. The thing fell backward after we all let go, and the massive hole in its head was absolute proof that it wasn’t getting back up.

I looked around for that crystal, but it was nowhere to be found. Unfortunately, I wasn’t given much time to look for it either, for we were all greeted by a large amount of the citizens open reentering the gates. However, instead of relieved, happy, or grateful expressions, many of them still looked fearful and angry. Before I knew it, dozens of hooves were pointed at me, accompanied by too many angry shouts to be able to pick out certain ones.

Cobalt rushed over, standing between me and the angry crowd. “What in Equestria has gotten into all of you? You can’t possibly think she’s to blame for this!”

“Well what other reason is there? Those things don’t just attack out of nowhere!”

Now it was Red’s turn to walk up. “How could Gilda have brought that thing here? And why would she help take it out if she did bring it, huh?”

“Why else would that beast come here? If she didn’t bring it, it must’ve come to get rid of her! Something we should’ve done the minute we saw her!”

The arguing ensued for over a minute before the booming voice of the ancient dragon echoed through the sky. “Kos nahlot! Be silent! A dark power has begun its descent on this land, and the griffin child is not to blame! Return to your homes, and rid yourselves of your wrath!”

My friend stood up straight, approaching the crowd. “You heard Vahlok! Back home, all of you, and I swear, the next one of you that utters as much as ‘squawk’ around her will be taken in for hate crimes. Now as you were!”

With a ton of grumbling and hostile glares, the residents began to return to their homes. Cobalt turned to me, and I wrapped my arms around him. I was able to hold back the tears, but not my knowledge. “This may not be the best time… but I know about Cerulean.”

He patted my back gently. Turning to Red and the guards in the tower, he nudged his head towards the beast. “Good work, all of you. You mind getting this cleaned up? I need to get Gilda and my sister home.”

Red gave him a salute, and I saw Twister walk out of the bottom of the left tower, mimicking the motion. “We will get it done, sir.”

“Good.” Cobalt nodded, putting one of his wings around me. “Thanks for keeping Cerulean safe, Gilda. I was on my way out here when she didn’t come home at a normal time, and that’s when I saw the giant coming after you. I do want to talk to you when we get home, but let’s find my sister first.”

“I’m here, Cobalt.” The mare made her way toward her brother, leaning against him. She was obviously weak, but she seemed a bit more sober than when I first saw her. Her voice was soft, and she let out a few coughs between words. “She saved my life… thank you, Gilda.”

My gaze shifted downward. It was hard to look her in the eye, knowing what I knew, but I was still appreciative of her thank you. “It was nothing. I couldn’t just let you get smashed. In more ways than one.”

In hindsight, I probably could have worded that much more tactfully, but she didn’t really seem to mind. Through another bout of coughs, she turned to the house. “I’m sorry I went back to the drinking. Can we just… go home?”

We both nodded, and Cobalt slipped one of his forelegs around her, helping her walk. After clearing his throat, he spoke, though his gaze still remained ahead. “So… you told Gilda about what happened?”

As he said it, I hung my head. I had absolutely no desire to tell him about what happened to me, nor what I did, but I settled for telling him tomorrow. That at least gave me some time to prepare myself. “I more so figured it out…. The worst part is that the one who did it was my brother. That being said, I can very easily forgive your sister for her words.”

They both gave me a soft smile, and Cobalt stretched out his wing to bring it around me again. “Glad to hear it. Once we get home, Cyan will get you two fixed up and in bed, but I must speak with Vahlok. Hopefully it won’t take long, if he decides to speak plainly with me.”

I simply gave him a shrug. “He spoke pretty plainly to me.”

The minute I finished, they both stared at me, wide-eyed. This was the first time since she had come over here that Cerulean wasn’t interrupted by coughs. “You spoke to Vahlok? When?”

I should have known that that was a big deal. “When I went in the forest. I had a lot on my mind, and I bumped into him when I wasn’t paying attention. He basically told me that I need to be patient, and show everyone that I’m not what they think all griffins are. Too bad they all want some reason, any reason, to have me exiled or executed or whatever else.”

We were now past the gate into the Federal District. Cobalt gazed up at the mountain, presumably where Vahlok’s cave was. “They’ll have to bring undeniable evidence of law breaking to the court for that to happen, and you’ve done nothing wrong.”

After a loud sigh and a few steps along the quarry, I finally decided on what I wanted to respond with. “It’s only a matter of time before they find something. Wouldn’t surprise me if they jump on the first law I break because I didn’t know about it.”

Cobalt brought us both in, and we handed Cerulean off to her sister. “I saw everything from the window. I’ll get little sis all patched up.” Cyan looked down at her younger sibling, somewhat glaring. “Have we learned our lesson about heavy drinking now?”

She gave Cyan a nod, and they both trotted off down the hall, leaving my friend and me by ourselves again. Before I could even finish turning to look at him, his forelegs and wings were around me in a tight hug. “I wish I could say don’t ever do that to me again, but you need to eat. As much as I want to talk, I need to go and see Vahlok, Gilda. Take care of my sisters if anything else happens, alright?”

I gave him a quick nod, reaching up to put my arms around his neck. “You know you can count on me.”

With this hug came a warmth unknown to me. Despite all the anger and hatred from those around me, I felt safe. Right there in that moment, not just with Cobalt, but with Cyan and Cerulean nearby as well, I truly felt like I belonged, like I was wanted, and letting go of the colt was extremely difficult. “Cobalt… thank you.”

I was met with a soft smile mere moments before I was left frozen, my face bright red and my hand on my cheek. He left without a word, but he didn’t need to say anything after what he did. Speechless myself, I headed into the room I had been gifted with and took off my armor, setting it on the desk. I didn’t bother with blankets or sheets, I just jumped on the bed and closed my eyes. It wasn’t until I had actually laid down that I realize how tired I actually was.

The moon was high in the sky by the time I reached Vahlok’s cave. The massive dragon had fallen asleep since his short speech ten-or twenty-minutes ago, though waking him up wasn’t as dangerous as one might think. His eyes opened slowly and centered on me. “Lot vokul. Great evil. This night, something unnatural has found its way into our city. Prepare yourself, child, Nii fen krii. It will kill. Cobalt Edge, you must remain vigilant. That which you cherish is in danger, and your devotion shall be tested. Sleep now, child, and prepare yourself. A gift is coming to your city, but it is not for you. Gilda does not know it yet, but this gift is for her.”

He closed his eyes, not even bothering to let me respond. Of course I could have just said something, but Vahlok’s dismissal was clear, and I dared not question him. My mind was almost broken by his conflicting words. Unless his idea of a gift was a great threat, I couldn’t think of anything he may have meant. Something told me the cause of this recent attack was part of the evil he spoke of, but a gift for Gilda? The only thing that crossed my mind was the kiss on her cheek, but that really wasn’t a gift, and the old dragon spoke as if she hadn’t received it.

Despite my curiosity and slight worry, I was way too tired to think about it right now. I made my way home, hanging up my armor on the rack next to the door. Taking my ponytail down made me contemplate cutting my mane… for a few seconds. My hair was long, sure, but the ponytail was me, and it was just another thing that made me different from all the captains before me, just like my father wanted. Call it creepy, call it wrong, call it a five-legged purple elephant playing the tuba on a treadmill, I don’t care, but I couldn’t resist poking my head in to check on Gilda.

My griffin friend was fast asleep, the feathers atop her head ruffled and messy. I gotta admit, it was a rather cute sight, and a good way to end off the night. Half walking, half zombie…ing… to my room, I fell onto my bed and pulled the blankets over me. My gaze turned to the sword on the wall directly opposite me; the shining silver blade was single-sided unlike the standard double-edged swords Equestrian smiths were known for, and it sported a legitimate handle as opposed to just a rod to insert into loops. The guard was shaped like a pair of wings, and the leg of a lion was carved into each side of the handle, ending in a spiked bottom resembling the tuft of hair on a lion’s tail.

It was the blade my dad’s savior had given me for my devotion to my family and my city. The griffin had told me that, while it was meant to be a display piece, it was made to slice through bone in a single swing. I had never had to use it, nor did I think holding it in my mouth and swinging my head was the optimal way to wield this weapon, but looking at it reminded me of that day. Scimitar would be the one I talked to about Gilda. My father lived in the highest house in the Sky Quarry, and he was always a good source of advice, even if he wasn’t the best source of practical support anymore.

As I thought about him and the gift the griffin gave me, my musings began to focus more on the griffin just a few rooms away. I found myself wondering exactly what she was to me, and how, if she was indeed more than a friend, I would tell her how I felt. Not only that, but I pondered how I’d be able to balance being her commanding officer with possibly being her boyfriend. Ha, and here I thought I’d actually be able to sleep. Eventually I did, but it felt like hours until my brain had finally exhausted itself enough to let my body rest.

Though it probably was at least eight hours, it only felt like two as the loud banging woke me up. All three ladies were already at the front door, and I found myself feeling very awkward when I realized just how out of place I was among them. I was greeted by almost half the city when I opened the door, and none of them looked very pleased. In front of them all stood my lieutenant, and while she didn’t look angry, she had a very told-you-so expression on her face. After tying up my hair again, I looked at them all.

Had Shatter not gotten up in my face, I would have asked what she was doing. “Hand her over, now.”

I shot her a glare, opening my wing in front of the girls. “What’s this about, Shatter?”

“Come with me and I’ll show you.”

All she was met with was a shake of the head. “The minute I move the crowd is going to try and take Gilda. I’m not moving.”

The unicorn nudged her head in the direction of the mob, and they all began to leave. They stopped at the bottom of the quarry, but it seemed be enough for her. “I don’t think you’ll be able to argue once you see.”

There was a long pause while I thought about it. Shatter’s loyalty had come into question before, and that, combined with her hereditary racism made leaving the house an extremely tough choice. Eventually I turned to Gilda before addressing my second in command again. “Fine, but she comes with me, and I have you court marshalled if you try anything.”

Without a word, she took me, she took all four of us, down the big road and to the main gate. The crowd followed us, and both my sisters had to turn away with their hooves to their mouths when they saw what everypony was bent out of shape for.

Every guard that was in the sentry towers last night, including Twister, lay dead on the ground a neat little row. They all were killed in the same way: four clear claw marks through the neck. Quick, clean kills that would’ve left them with no chance to react. “Before you say anything, Cobalt, think. No beast or alternative killer is organized enough to pull this off. In addition, they’re simply dead. Anything else that has attacked our city would have eaten them as well, and we would have seen them in the city as well; beasts don’t just kill and take off.”

If this was Vahlok’s idea of a gift, simply put, that’s fucked up. With a sigh, I looked at Gilda and both of my sisters before turning back to Shatter. “She’s not a killer. Just look at her, Shield Shatter.”

I really wish I hadn’t said that. The guilt written all over her face was unmistakable to everyone around. As much as I didn’t want to admit it, the look in her eyes when I said what I did made me second guess my statement. The unicorn patted my shoulder, her face devoid of emotion. “I’ll give you a moment. I won’t ask you to arrest her, and you have a day before her trial. Look, Sir, if you really think there’s another possibility, now is the time to find it. Get your affairs in order; we’re taking her.”

Smacking her hoof off of me, I made my way over to Gilda and brought her into my embrace. Everything pointed to her killing these guards while we were asleep, but it just wasn’t who she was. “I’m sorry, Gilda… there’s nothing I can do.”

She herself lowered her head, pressing herself against my neck. “This is your job. As confused as I am, and as strongly as I feel about you, I’m not going to let that get in the way of doing your duty. Of course I’m angry, of course I’m afraid, of course I’m sad. But Cobalt… they got what they wanted, so, for what it’s worth,” the griffin leaned her head up, pressing the top of her beak against my lips quickly, “thank you. In the short time that I’ve been here, you’ve shown me that not all ponies were a lost cause…. I love you, Cobalt. You’ve been so good to me, and I just wish we could’ve had more time together. I just wish I could’ve properly thanked you.”

Gilda opened one of her wings, plucking a feather from it and handing it to me before walking over to Shatter. “I know you’re not going to believe me, but I didn’t do this. Shatter, you chose to give me a chance, so thanks. Your eyes tell me you have your own doubts, but this crowd here isn’t gonna just let me go.”

“Shut up, you fucking monster!” A rocking came hurling at my face, but just before it hit, the mare caught it in her magic grasp, slinging it over the heads of the ponies behind her.

Turning to the crowd, she pointed a hoof towards the direction the stone came from. “You shut up, you racist piece of trash. You know what? Since Gilda’s been here she’s acted with a level of decency I’ve never seen in others of her kind. I’m making this arrest because you all demand it, and even if the evidence is pointing straight at her, I’ve did a little fixing up on my tunnel vision. One day you all are going to wake up and realize just how bigoted you all are.”

My lieutenant cuffed my friend, leading her towards the city hall. The crowd followed behind, and I motioned to my sisters. “Go with them. Make sure she stays safe.”

Cerulean did as I told her immediately, but our elder sister was no so hasty. “Cobalt, is there any other explanation?”

Upon hearing her question, I walked over to the bodies. I found myself wishing that Red had not simply been in the right place at the right time last night, because he would’ve surely prevented these deaths and caught the real culprit. However, I focused in on something and jumped up. “Cyan… I’m going to have to ask you to do something gross.”

She gave me a hesitant nod. “What is it?”

I turned towards Bellows’ smithy. “I just need one of these bodies preserved somehow. I know Shatter has a freezing spell that can do the job, so if I give you something to carry one in, can you carefully take it to her?”

My sister gave me another nod. “Do you have a plan?”

“I do. Don’t move the body yet, I’ll be back.”

The trip to the smithy didn’t take long, and while the big guy wasn’t there, the gauntlets he had made were. They were sitting right on the counter, and I grabbed hold of them and fly back as fast as I could. Once I was back at the gate, I leaned down and opened one of the metal gloves. “I knew it!” While it wasn’t much, we now had counter evidence in support of my new friend. The claw marks in every single body were bigger than Gilda’s hands. Talons don’t wedge like an axe or a straight sword. They slice like a curved blade, with the cuts only begin as wide as the weapon. Bigger marks meant bigger talons, so this was either a female much older than Gilda or a male.

I turned to my sister. “I’m going to see Vahlok. I’m sure he knows what actually happened and we just didn’t cause enough of a ruckus to wake him. Think you can get one of these to Shatter?”

“I can, just be careful, Cobalt.” She kissed my cheek, taking off to the Arts and Entertainment District.

My mind wandered just for a quick bit, wondering if she planned on using a large canvas, but snapped back to reality rather quickly. I curled up the fingers in each glove to fit together, setting the feather delicately between the joints of one gauntlet to avoid damaging it. Home was my first stop just so I could set the stuff down, and I set the feather in a small case meant to display a dagger. Not the best place, but it would keep the thing safe for now. With most of the city now at city hall, and the gate guards burying the dead, save for the one body my sister chose, anything would have a decently easy time getting in. Knowing this, I decided putting my armor on was a very good idea. I also told myself “ya think” when I made said decision.

Vahlok was indeed asleep, but something was wrong. His sky blue and grey had turned into a muddy mess of dark blue and black. Honestly, he looked kind of sick. I approached him and spoke softly, but still with enough volume to hopefully wake him. “Vahlok? Dreh hin ni alok?”

A sinister voice came from the shadows at the side of the cave. It sounded young, but still very menacing, like a teenager whose voice had not yet broken, but was like…halfway there. “Only I can wake him up now. I take it you’re here to ask him for advice on how to save poor little Gilda, right?”

Spinning around, I was prepared to defend myself. I said nothing as the griffin stepped out from the shadows, red stains in his fur and white feathers. His feathers and fur were a bit darker than Gilda, he had no trace of the light purple that surrounded her eyes, and his head was decorated by feathers that he positioned to look like spikes pointing back. “Name’s Gerard, and I’m the one who killed those guards. Impressive work, huh? I’m also the one who brought that big dude here last night. Shame he wasn’t able to kill that traitor.”

My ears perked up at his words. “Traitor?”

He flashed a grin, leaning against one of Vahlok’s exposed fangs. “Gilda, that little bitch. My dad, the chief of our village, sentenced her to death. Krieger, being the stickler for honor that he is, allowed her to leave to repay a debt to some namby pamby ponies that saved his life, but I’m not so forgiving.”

I felt my eyes narrowing, shooting the griffin a hostile glare. “So you killed them to set her up?”

The jerk quite literally patted himself on the shoulder. “It was a pretty great plan. I followed her here, snuck around, and learned the basics. When I saw you getting all cozy with her, an idea came to mind: destroy everything she has before having her die herself. This city, you, I’m gonna take this shit down. I want that little bitch to experience loss just like I did. Hoo boy, I can only imagine the look on her face when I drag her out of there and she sees this place up in flames. It’s gonna be great.”

Taking a few steps toward him, I spread my wings. Dad told me never to believe anyone that said it looked intimidating, but it help give me a faster reaction if I needed to follow someone in the air. “And you think I’m just going to stand by while you do this?”

He shook his head, the grin still on his face. “Oh no, you’ll be dead long before then. Besides, I’m not the one you should be worried about.” Slamming his back paw into the dragon send when looked like a wave of black electricity through him, and his eyes opened to reveal red slits for pupils with purple covering everything else. “He is.”

Vahlok let out a loud roar, hitting me with his tail and sending me flying out of the cave. Gerard waved his hand over the city, turning to the big dragon. “Destroy.”

With another roar, he sped out of the cave, the griffin now on his head. He headed for me again, but became distracted by the magic blast that slammed him in the face. However, not even Shatter’s magic was enough to visibly hurt Vahlok. Looking down, I could see my sisters and flew down to meet them.

“Cerulean! Cyan! Get the citizens inside, now! We’ll try and keep him off of you!”

They both nodded, and Cyan gave me an extra one after grabbing my wing to get my attention. “The people are willing to at least listen to you.”

Now it was my turn to nod, but I took off again seeing as how time was not on our side. As much as it pained me to do so, I’d have to fight my old friend. Shatter herself tossed me my blades, though there was quite a bit of doubt in my mind as to how affective they would actually be against his stony scales.

Many guards, including Red and a few of my more skilled soldiers, were now here to help. A decent chunk of them thought smart and tried to attack Gerard, but every time somepony got too close, he had Vahlok rear up and hit them, or at least block them. The fortunate thing is that we were keeping his attention, so he was focused more on us and less on destroying the city. Another good thing was that Vahlok didn’t breathe fire. The downside to this was that, being a sky dragon, he could call forth lightning. He had not done it yet, but there was no doubt in my mind that he would if we couldn’t subdue him quickly.

After the second roar was heard, I was left completely alone. Shatter had been nice enough to take off my cuffs once I was in a cell, but it didn’t help. I fell to my knees, gripping the bars before me. As I thought about my current position, I could feel my eyes misting up. I really thought, even with the racists here, this city was going to be a change. Now I was sitting in jail, framed for a murder, without even the one pony I knew I could being anything and everything to for help. That kiss was my confession, but I didn’t even have time to ask him if he’d care for a date. I never got the chance to offer Cerulean help getting over what happened. Anything good that had come from my arrival here was gone, and I would have begun to cry had I not heard hoofsteps approaching me.

The stallion was dark brown with a greying mane. He had a scar crossing his lips diagonally, and he was wrapped in a red cloak. A few wrinkles were chiseled into his face, and his eyes were a light red. In those eyes was not anger, pity, or sadness, but a soft, care, and almost fatherly look is what he met me with. “Hold back your tears, if you can. If not, swallow your pride and let it out.”

I did as he said, shutting my eyes and letting the tears fall like rain. “Did you plan this? I could really use someone to talk to.”

He slowly shook his head, kneeling down to look at me. “Child, there is no time for words right now. Now we must fight.” My eyes widened when I saw the sword he had slipped through the bars of my cell. Nobody could look at it and say it was griffin craftsmanship. “My son was given this blade long ago, but it would be rather impractical for him to use it. That sword before you can cut through bones, and even stone, in a single slice, and I have another gift for you.”

Raising his hoof, he slammed it down on the lock that kept me in the cell, breaking it off. As the door opened, he lifted his clock and set down the gold armor. It was just like Cobalt’s, save for the fact that it was shaped for a griffin, and instead of a broken X it was like a silver crescent moon, though the opening was at the top instead of the side. In addition, he also handed me two metal gloves, which I assumed to be the ones Bellows had made for me.

I looked up at the stallion before me, wiping my eyes. “Won’t you be arrested for helping me? I mean, you are breaking me out of jail.”

“They cannot take anything from me I care about, friend.” My eyes widened again and I covered my mouth as he opened his cloak. His wings were almost gone, everything from the second “section” upward had been removed. “I love this city and my family. They may take my home, my possessions, and my life, but they cannot take those things from me.”

“Scimitar?” My voice was soft and low. I was surprised I was even able to speak at all.

He gave me a quick nod, helping me get the armor on and handing me the sword. “I have watched you since you came here, Gilda. Cobalt has told you the story of my loss, and I must tell you something. I see in your eyes the same hope, the same life, I see the same shine that was in my friend’s so long ago. It’s possible that your arrival wasn’t just a choice, but it was meant to be. Now, you hold the knowledge that can save this city. Go, my dear, and show them all who you are on the inside.”

The pegasus accompanied me all the way out of the building, and once again I found myself with a wide-eyed expression. In the sky, various guards, including Cobalt, were fighting against Vahlok while unicorn guards were blasting him with magic. Without a word, Scimitar pushed me on the back gently, and I took off. Once I was over the dragon, I spotted my brother. He turned and saw me, a wicked grin spreading across his beak. Pointing his claw at me, he shouted out “Kill!”

Vahlok sped towards me, but even being a dragon, he was still too slow to keep up with me. Cobalt and Red met up with me, but the smaller colt spoke first. “We’ve been at this for at least ten minutes… nothing we do can hurt Vahlok, and every time we go for Gerard, he pushes us back.”

My brother was cocky and dumb. If that was his plan, the way around was easy. “Cobalt, you okay with taking orders from me for a bit?”

His chuckle was interrupted by another charge from the dragon, but after all were out of his way, Cobalt nodded. “What’s the plan?”

I pointed at Gerard. “We need to get him off of there. If he’s so adamant about keeping himself safe, he’s probably hiding something. I’ll need at least two of you to leave while we get his attention. Once Gerard is distracted, fly over Vahlok and hit him from there. The dragon shows signs of something I’ve seen already, and if it’s what I think it is, he’s only going to get worse the longer this goes on.”

Cobalt nodded and took off, relaying my words to his troops. Within moments, at least twelve guards were trying to charge my brother, forcing him to turn his attention to them. When his priorities were focused on taking out those pegasi, Red and Cobalt swooped in, giving Gerard a nice dose of boot to the head.

Spotting it the minute he was knocked off, I sped toward the crystal embedded in the dragon’s head. “Cobalt, can you keep him off me?”

Both he and Red nodded, and I saw my friend grin when he noticed Red was coming with him. If Heavyweight really was a big and bad as Cobalt said he was, it really made me want to watch Ol’ Red get a hold of my brother, but I didn’t have time. Vahlok was trying to shake me off, but I proved that the blade was what Scimitar said it was when it made short work of the scales surrounding the dark purple stone. I knew I was hurting the guardian of Meadowbrook, but I wasn’t about to let something my brother set in motion destroy the city. With the tip of the blade in his head, I noticed that he seemed to move wherever I moved the sword.

I took him over the main gate before cutting around the crystal and pulling it out. Vahlok let out a loud roar before his scales returned to their normal colors. He fell safely to the ground and I chucked the crystal over into the city. “Someone smash it!”

It was like a race as pretty much everyone in the noticeably thinner crowd rushed towards the glowing stone, each having a go at stomping on it until there was only dust left. After that, the entire crowd surrounded my brother, who was now on the ground in cuffs.

A loud gasp echoed through the air as Scimitar made his way through, standing over Gerard with his hoof lightly pressed against the now white neck. “The trial begins in half an hour, and it will be not only dear Gilda who will be tried, but this monster as well.”

Chapter 7: This is My Home

Home

Story 4

Chapter 7: This is My Home

By: SleeplessScribe

I stared at my father, wide-eyed at seeing him actually outside. The crowd around us, save for Gilda and my sisters, made their way to city hall. Both Cyan and Cerulean wrapped their forelegs around him, shrieking “Daddy!” at the same time. He brought them both close, letting out a light chuckle.

“It’s been so long since I’ve seen my daughters. Who knew such pretty fillies could grow into beautiful mares in only a month or two?” He then turned to me, a rather proud look in his eyes. “And you, my boy. You’ve grown so much since you took my place. I see you still haven’t cut that hair.”

Grinning bashfully was kind of hard to avoid as my father turned to Gilda last. “You, my dear. Come here please.”

She did as she was told, and my dad brought her into his embrace after letting go of my sisters. “That armor suits you quite well. Your quick thinking and fast action are to be admired, and I’m very proud to see my son taking a liking to such a lovely lady.”

After he said that, Gilda and I both looked at each other before turning away, both our faces as red as his cloak. With a hearty laugh, my father turned around, grabbed a hold of the struggling griffin, and headed to the hall. “I’m sure we now have ample evidence to not only prove young Gilda innocent, but also to have this other griffin brought to justice. I will see you all in twenty-two minutes.”

We all gave him a nod, but Cyan and Cerulean followed him. The elder mare gave me a wink, making my blush return as I was once again in my friend’s embrace. “Your dad is awesome, you know that, right?”

I gave her a quick nod, spreading my wings and holding them over her. “He told me everything. I knew you weren’t a killer, Gilda.”

Her eyes shifted down, which still had me worried, but I was easily able to bring them back up with a kiss on the tip of her beak. “This is probably a terrible time to ask, but since we’re here… if the trial is over at a decent hour, how would you like me to take you to dinner?”

There was no blush, no bashful stuttering, and no attempt to play off my words as a joke. Gilda simply nodded, giving my cheek and affectionate, cat-like lick. “I’d love to.”

I couldn’t help but chuckle at the lick. Not only did it tickle, but it was kind of strange. “Was that a kiss or are you hungry?” Now I had her blushing again, and after my own laugh, I turned down the road with one wing still around her. “Dad was right, that armor looks great on you, lieutenant.”

She turned to me, her mouth slightly agape. “E-Excuse me?”

With a grin, I turned to her with one eye closed. “Well, as we’ve seen, Shatter only comes out of the office when she’s needed. I’d love to have someone keeping me company while I’m out here, and you’ve proven that you can come out on top even in the worst of odds. Plus the armor. It suits you, and its ranking is on par with my own.”

The griffin let out a sigh, stopping to rub her head against my neck. A lot of her feline side was coming out today. “Stop being so good to me, Cobalt. I might just fall in love with you.”

“That’s just more incentive for me to keep being good to you.” We continued on to the hall, though I could tell she wasn’t scared anymore. Her expression showed much more confidence than when she was first accused of the killings, though her tail was tucked between her legs slightly. I guess the sight of her brother brought back some bad memories.

When it was time for the trial to start, my father was the one who oversaw it. To be honest, Meadowbrook’s court reminded me more of a church with the way it looked, just because all the seats looked like pews to me. The people didn’t bother with the regular setup this time, they just wanted proof as to who killed my guards. It didn’t really matter, though, Gerard was going to receive a lengthy, if not life sentence for what we knew he had done.

Of course, with him here, nopony had solid proof that Gilda was the killer, and with Twister’s body I was able to prove that Gilda was innocent through the fact that Gerard’s talons were a perfect fit for the gashes. Honestly, I feel like Twister would have been smiling at me right now. She didn’t talk much, but she always believed in equality and second chances, so I think that proving Gilda innocent even after her life was over would have pleased her very much.

Nopony bothered to testify against Gilda. My evidence coupled with what she had just done pretty much outweighed any racist excuse they could’ve come up with, but before my father could announce the sentence, I approached the other griffin. I had to know one thing before he was tossed in prison. He still bore a proud grin, and his eyes were just as wicked as they were when he was all dark and evil.

“Why?”

He snapped at me, forcing me to back up. “Remember how I said I wanted Gilda to feel loss like I had? Remember how you said you knew she couldn’t be a killer? Fuck you, asshole, she killed my brother! She killed her own brother!”

All eyes focused on Gilda now and a loud gasp echoed through the courtroom. My friend was hanging her head, and Cerulean patted her on the back. The mare put one wing around her, and I knew Gilda was about to confess something only Cerulean actually knew. She stood, very calmly, and lifted her head. “Only because he tried to violate me. You, Kenta, and father are all certified lunatics. My mother and I were the only ones in our family who weren’t fucked up in the head.”

I really expected my father to call for order as she approached her brother, but he simply sat by, watching. Gilda now had one claw pointed at him, but she didn’t dare get close enough for him to bite her. “You remember that time I left? Yes, I went to flight camp to improve my skill, but the entire year after that, I was trying to find a new home. Why? To get away from you three. I was tired of dad’s beatings, tired of your fucking pranks like that time you pissed in my drinking water or the time you pushed me into the cooking fire, and almost getting raped by Kenta was the last straw! Yes, father sentenced me to death for what I did, but at least he had enough of a heart to let me leave, even if he was repaying a debt!”

He scoffed at his sister, glaring and growling. “Heart? Fuck heart, you bitch! You killed my brother! All he wanted was a way to keep our line going, and with griffins slowly dying out in Equestria, you were the best option! Granted, the mare over there was my personal toy, but that’s beside the point.”

Cerulean hid her face with her wing, leaning into Cyan’s embrace as audible crying was heard. Gilda opened her mouth to speak, but I couldn’t hold myself back any more.

“You’re sick.” Now all eyes were on me as I lightly pushed Gilda back. “You’re her brother, and brothers don’t try to kill their family, regardless of what they’ve done. She didn’t have a choice, it was either stop her brother or have her dignity stolen and be forced to carry a child she didn’t even want. Not only that, but let’s add that to the list of abuses she just mentioned. That’s rape, murder, assault on the city twice, and domestic abuse. All of this added up just got you your own death sentence, don’t you agree, father?”

The elder stallion nodded slowly, banging his gavel. “I condense all his offenses into being a sick, twisted monster. Take him to the chopping block and feed him to the dogs when you’re through.”

He struggled as Red took a hold of him. The big colt chuckled a little, looking down at his prisoner. “Squirm all you want, I don’t let go.”

All the citizens began to follow Red, but Gilda spoke up again, grabbing their attention. “Say what you want about me. I may be related to that psychopath, I may be related to three lunatics, but I’m not one. Sure, I murdered, but I’m nothing like him. I don’t care how you all feel about griffins, I’m here to stay.”

Nopony spoke, but both my sisters and my father joined me in putting our forelegs around her. “For the second time in seventeen years, I actually feel wanted by someone, and the first time couldn’t last long because I was on the run. Regardless of what you want, I have….”

Gilda struggled with finding a good word, but my father completed the sentence for her. “Family. As far as any of you citizens are concerned, Gilda is a member of this family. That being said, I expect her to be treated as such.”

I’m sure we all wanted to say something, but everyone was silenced as Shatter stood up, joining our small group. “I chose to give her a chance to show me what was beneath the griffin outside, and today, she’s shown me a strong and caring heart. How about you all give her a chance to show you that as well?”

One by one, ponies began to join us, offering their apologies to my friend. Some held their hooves out and shook hand with her, and some simply apologized and left. After they all were gone, both my sisters tried to speak, but were pushed out of the room by Scimitar. My dad gave me a wink and left, both Cyan and Cerulean following him.

She took my hoof in her hand, leaning up to press her beak to my chin. “You’ve been too good, Cobalt. Now look at what you’ve done.”

I couldn’t help but smile. The griffin was acting so cute now, and it was a welcome change. “Looks like I’m stuck with you now. Poor, poor me.” Lifting up her head, I pressing my lips against the tip of her beak, but she tilted her head to the side and opened her mouth a little, making it feel more like a real kiss.

“I love you, Cobalt. I can’t thank you enough for what you’ve done and how you’ve treated me. You never gave up on me….”

With my wings around her again, I nuzzled her under my chin. “When I’m devoted to something, I’m five hundred percent committed. That goes for protecting this city, and making you feel welcome.”

Gilda tightened her hug a bit, resting her head on my shoulder. “You’ve done more than that. For the first time in a long, long time, I feel loved. I have a family here, I have a male that’s stolen my heart… I have a home.”

We began the trip back out of the city hall, and I just couldn’t help but pecking her on the cheek again. “You do, Gilda, and I promise you you’ll never want to be gone for long.”

She gave a small giggle, poking my muzzle. “You’re here, I already feel that way.”

As we left, the big dragon stood before us, a rocky smile on his face. “Well done, both of you. You’ve done this city and myself a great service, and I wish to express my gratitude. If you would please accompany me to my cave.”

It wasn’t really request, but we treated it as one anyway. Once we were in the mouth of the cave, Vahlok walked all the way to the back with one of his front claws encased in a blue aura. He began to write with his claw in the wall, and a perfectly rectangular section fell, revealing a gold medallion fitted into a slot. The dragon took it and approached me. “This has been a treasure I have guarded since the beginning of your princess’s reign, and for your devotion to your friend, your family, and your city, I can think of no better way to reward you than bequeathing this to you. Wear it with pride, Cobalt Edge.”

He set it around my neck, but the only think I could focus on was my girlfriend. “Vahlok… does Gilda get anything?”

His smile widened as his eyes shifted to her. “She already has. I told you she would receive a gift, and she has.”

She set her arm beneath my foreleg, leaning on me. “He’s right. Cobalt, I have a home now. I have you. That’s definitely enough to make me happy.”

So that was it. That was really it. In two days, I had helped save the city, gotten my father to come out of his house, saved Vahlok, and gotten a girlfriend. By the time we had reached the ground again, Gerard was already dead, and the dogs we had were all full. It spawned a few poultry-related jokes in the following days, but after a while, life resumed as it always had.

Well, except for the fact that I had a new field lieutenant and a close lover. After a few dates, Gilda and I decided to make our relationship officially legitimately officially official. We had a few long talks too, and eventually went to go see a doctor. Both she and I dreamed of being parents one day, and we were overjoyed to find that a child between pegasus and griffin was, indeed, possible.

What? No, we didn’t do it yet! She just turned 18, we’re not ready for that!

Anyway, yes, things were great. All the people had learned to really like Gilda, and she became an essential member of the community, just like everyone else.

Everyone was happy, and all was good.